Our ancient forbearers knew the night sky like the back of their hand. The constellations oriented them not only in a literal sense, as vital navigation tools, but in a spiritual one as well, serving as vivid reminders of their mythologies and place in the universe. Still today, knowing the constellations can be a source of both satisfying knowledge and humbling awe. This amazing conglomeration in our night sky called a constellation is a group of stars that, when seen from Earth, form a pattern. The stars in the sky are divided into 88 constellations. Twelve of these groups of stars are our well-known astrological constellations. One of the twelve astrological constellations is Pisces. Pisces is relatively large occupying 889 square degrees, making it the 14th largest constellation overall. While it is a fairly large constellation, its stars are faint, making it challenging to see in the sky with the naked eye, which makes Pisces one of the less prominent objects in the sky. One of the key ways to identify Pisces is to find the Circlet of Pisces, also known as the head of the Western Fish, to the south of the Square of Pegasus. The Eastern Fish can be …show more content…
Riding directly along the ecliptic, this constellation is now the location of the First Point of Aries, the point which the sun crosses the equator on its way north, marking the Vernal Equinox or the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Due to precession, the First Point of Aries has moved west into Pisces since it was first established in Ancient Times. The only Messier Object within the Pisces boundary is M74, a less-pronounced cousin of the also face-on Whirlpool Galaxy. In Hubble images, the bright cloudiness almost shrouds the spiral quality of the galaxy. An infrared image taken with the Spitzer Space Telescope reveals a pronounced web-like quality to this galaxy, as well as some greater definition in the M74 spiral