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Sagitta

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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• Sagitta
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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Sagitta

("the arrow" or "dart"), in astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.), and catalogued by Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe and Hevelius, who each described 5 stars. The fable was that this constellation was one of the arrows with which Hercules killed the vulture which gnawed the liver of Prometheus. S. Sagittae is a short period variable, period 8.38 days, range in magnitude 5.6 to 6.4.