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Perseus (Astronomy)

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In astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, called after the Greek legendary hero, it is mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.); 1 Author of a history of Antioch; he is quoted by John Malalas, Chronographia, pp. 37-38, ed. Bonn (1831). Nothing further is known of him (see C. W. Muller, Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, iv. 467). Ptolemy and Tycho Brahe catalogued 29 stars, Hevelius 46.46. The most important member of this constellation is Persei or Algol, a famous variable star. 0 Persei is a triple star, composed of one 4th magnitude star and two of the 10th magnitude; p Persei is an irregular variable, with a range in magnitude of 3.4 to 4.1. Nova Persei is a "new" star discovered in 1887 and subsequently recognized on Harvard plates by Mrs Fleming in 1895; another new star was discovered by Anderson on the 21st of February 1901, which, after increasing in magnitude, gradually became fainter and ultimately disappeared. There is a nebula surrounding Nova Persei (1901) which was photographed at Yerkes observatory in September 1901; a pair of star clusters, appearing as a bright patch in the Milky Way; and the meteoric swarm named the Perseids, which appear in August and have their radiant in Perseus. (See METEOR.)