It is also associated with Crotus, the satyr who kept company of the Muses on Mount Helicon. Zodiac Signs and Greek mythology One of the most well-known aspects of astrology is the connection between the zodiac signs and Greek mythology. It can be observed through a small telescope and is a popular deep sky object among amateur astronomers. Artist conception of the December 27, 2004 gamma ray flare expanding from SGR 1806-20. The Trifid Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 6.3 and is approximately 5,200 light years distant. Astronomers obtained this portrait of Barnards Galaxy using the Wide Field Imager attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at ESOs La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. It is located in the fourth quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ4) and can be seen at latitudes between +55 and -90. Sagittarius is one of the largest southern constellations. They have the head and torso of a man, but the bottom half of a hoofed beast. The Mythology That Defines Each One of the 12 Zodiac Signs - Astrology.com It contains areas of massive H II emission, large clouds of partly ionized gas which show evidence of recent star forming activity. Image: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Space Telescope, Martin Pugh; Processing: Robert Gendler. Most stories come to the conclusion that the myth of the constellation Sagittarius is the tale of the centaur Chiron. NGC 6553 is a globular cluster found just over a degree to the southeast of the Lagoon Nebula. The nebula was discovered by Truman Safford on 28 August, 1867. Located 38,700 light years away, the star is likely a binary system. The constellations Sagittarius and Centaurus are both supposed to represent a centaur, a creature with the upper torso of a man and the body and legs of a horse . Sagittarius A* is the leading candidate for the location of the supermassive black hole believed to be at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy. It has a similar structure to the Small Magellanic Cloud, the dwarf galaxy in the constellation Tucana. These figures come from Greco-Roman mythology, but it's thought that the ancient Babylonians were the first to identify Sagittarius as an archer, in 11th century B.C. Chiron was immortal, so he could not die. The cluster was discovered by William Herschel on August 7, 1784. Studying the makeup of stars in globular clusters like M69 has helped astronomers trace back the evolution of the cosmos. Chiron was an intelligent, wise, and good-natured creatureunlike most of his kind. It is 15-20 light years in radius and contains about 150 stars. Box Nebula (NGC 6445), image: NASA and STScI. Its symbol is . The apparent magnitude of Polis A ranges from 3.84 to 3.96. It represents the archer. Zeta Sagittarii is another binary star in Sagittarius. The brightest stars in the cluster are 20th magnitude. The most prominent members are Wolf-Rayet stars and O-type supergiants. Located on the far side of our galaxy, the cluster is heavily obscured by dust, but visible in infrared wavelengths.