Aries- Ram

History and Mythology

This animal has been seen as a ram for ages. The nomadic tribes of the Middle East first saw this heavenly constellation. When the zodiac was first made, Aries was the zodiacal sign when spring started. In fact, it is still used today as the zodiacal sign of spring, even though because of precession Pisces is the real zodiacal sign for the start of spring. The Egyptians and the Greeks saw this constellation as a ram, but they saw it as different rams. To the Egyptians this ram was one of their gods, Amon Ra. For the Greeks, this was the infamous ram of the Golden Fleece that Jason sailed around the world in many an adventure to find.

Stars

alpha-Hamal (lamb) is the name for this star, after the Arabian name for this whole constellation Spectral Type- K2 III Magnitude-2.0 Distance-85 ly

beta-Sheratan-means two of something in Arabic. Whether this refers to another star or the horns of the ram is unknown Spectral Type- A5 V Magnitude- 2.6 Distance- 46 ly

gamma-Mesarthim-unknown; thought as a mistranslation of ancient Hebrew, this is a relatively easy double star in telescopes Spectral Types- A0 V Magnitudes- 4.6 Distance- 115 ly

delta-Botein-Arabic for belly, where the star is located in many depictions of Aries Spectral Type- K2 III Magnitude-4.4 Distance- 255 ly

41 Arietis-one of the bright stars Bayer missed in his catalogue, the number is from Herschel's catalogue Spectral Type- B8 V Magnitude- 3.6 Distance- 115 ly

Star Clusters

None that can easily be observed

Nebulae

None that can be easily viewed

Galaxies

All of the galaxies in Aries are faint, the lightest being around 10th magnitude. NGC 697 is an elliptical that is slightly NW of beta, NGC 772 is a spiral that is around 2 degrees SE of beta, NGC 972 is another spiral near the border of Aries and Triangulum, and NGC 1156 is an irregular galaxy almost 10 degrees NW of delta.

Back to Constellation Index