Pegasus, the Winged Horse Home



Offspring of Phorkys and his sister, Keto, the three Gorgons were fearsome creatures the sight of which turned the viewer to stone.  Two were immortal but the third, Medusa, was mortal.  She was pregnant by Poseidon when Perseus killed her by cutting off her head and, from the severed neck were born Chrysaor and Pegasos.  Little more is known of Pegasos.  He was tamed by Bellerophon with the aid of a golden bridle given to him by Athene, the virgin goddess of handicrafts, and enabled him kill Chimaira, the three-headed offspring of Typhon and Echidna.  Bellerophon continued to ride Pegasos and used him to kill Stheneboia, wife of Proitos, king of Tiryns, because she had tried to have him killed when he refused to return her love.  He persuaded her to ride with him on Pegasos and threw her off at high altitude.  Finally he tried to ride Pegasos to the house of the Gods on Mount Olympos.  Zeus was furious at this presumption and sent a gadfly to sting his mount who threw Bellerophon to the ground.  Pegasos went to live with the gods on Olympos and drew the chariot which brought Zeus his thunder and lightning.  Zeus honoured him by placing him amongst the stars.

The constellation is marked by the great square consisting of Alpheratz, Algenib, Markab, and Scheat, despite the fact that Alpheratz is in Andromeda.  Although not very bright, the square is easily found as there are no other bright stars in that part of the sky.  The brightest star in the constellation is Enif, ε, at magnitude 2.4 is on the other side of the constellation close to Equuleus, and it may be slightly variable.  Definitely variable is Scheat, β, which is distinctly orange in colour and varies between magnitudes 2.3 and 2.8.  The only other object of note is M15, a particularly compact globular cluster which is rich in variable stars.  It is very remote at 49,000 light years away and is almost 100 light years in diameter.

The picture was taken at 01:49 on 3rd September 2010 using a Canon D1000 camera fitted with an 18-mm lens at f/5 with a 30-second exposure at ISO1600.  It was enhanced by increasing the gamma to 1.8 and the contrast increased before removing the background light pollution.  After reduction to 16% of the original size the gamma and contrast were increased again to combat the loss due to the reduction, and the picture was finally rendered in monochrome.







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