CASSIOPEIA

, one of the 48 old constellations, placed near Cepheus, not far from the north pole. The Greeks probably received this figure, as they did the rest, from the Egyptians, and in their fables added it to the family in the neighbouring part of the heavens, making her the wife of Cepheus, and mother of Andromeda. They pretend she was placed in this situation, to behold the destruction of her favourite daughter Andromeda, who is chained just by her on the shore, to be devoured; and that as a punishment for her pride and vanity in presuming to stand the comparison of beauty with the Nereids.

In the year 1572 there burst out all at once in this constellation a new star, which at first surpassed Jupiter himself in magnitude and brightness; but it diminished by degrees, till it quite disappeared at the end of 18 months. This star alarmed all the astronomers of that age, many of whom wrote dissertations upon it; among the rest Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Maurolycus, Lycetus, Gramineus, and others. Beza, the Landgrave of Hesse, Rosa, and others, wrote to prove it a comet, and the same that appeared to the Magi at the birth of Christ, and that it came to declare his second coming: these were answered by Tycho.

The stars in the constellation Cassiopeia, are in Ptolomy's catalogue 13, in Hevelius's 37, in Tycho's 46, and in Flamsteed's 55.