Find it in the sky
Across the Pole Star from the Big Dipper: five bright stars drawing a W. Seen all year from mid-northern latitudes.
Northern sky
Cassiopeia
A W in the northern sky.
Best in November, around 9 p.m.No. 25 of the 88 constellations by areaBrightest star Schedar (magnitude 2.24)5 stars in this guide
The drawings on these maps are the game’s, and don’t show exact positions in the sky.
Legend
Cassiopeia, queen of Aethiopia, boasts that her daughter Andromeda is fairer than the sea nymphs and angers Poseidon. She is set in the sky on her throne, wheeling round the Pole Star and clinging on half the year so as not to fall.
Its stars
Magnitude says how bright a star looks from here: the smaller the number, the brighter the star.
Caph
Beta Cassiopeiae
- Type
- Yellow-white giant
- Distance
- about 55 light years
- Brightness
- magnitude 2.28
- Name
- “Palm” (Arabic; the hennaed hand)
One end of the W. It spins fast, and its light flickers slightly every two and a half hours.
Schedar
Alpha Cassiopeiae
- Type
- Orange giant
- Distance
- about 228 light years
- Brightness
- magnitude 2.24
- Name
- “Breast” (Arabic)
The Queen circles the North Star and never sets for most northern skywatchers.
Navi
Gamma Cassiopeiae
- Type
- Blue-white star
- Distance
- about 550 light years
- Brightness
- magnitude 2.39
- Name
- “Ivan” backwards: astronaut Gus Grissom’s middle name
Apollo astronauts steered by it. Its brightness changes unpredictably; the first known star of its kind.
Ruchbah
Delta Cassiopeiae
- Type
- White star
- Distance
- about 99 light years
- Brightness
- magnitude 2.68
- Name
- “Knee” (Arabic)
A pair: every 759 days its partner passes in front and it dims a little.
Segin
Epsilon Cassiopeiae
- Type
- Blue-white star
- Distance
- about 470 light years
- Brightness
- magnitude 3.37
- Name
- Unclear; perhaps miscopied from another star’s name
The other end of the W: a hot blue star about 3,000 times brighter than the Sun.
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Sources: constellation areas follow the International Astronomical Union (IAU) boundaries; star values come from Wikipedia’s articles, based on Hipparcos and Gaia; the Sun’s dates come from EarthSky. Distances are rounded.