Cassiopeia

Cassiopeia is generally known as being the W-shaped constellation in the northern hemisphere, between Cepheus and Perseus and near Polaris. The constellation itself is said to be Cassiopeia's Chair because it resembles a chair. She is often times called "heaven's troubled queen." Cassiopeia was a Greek queen, wife of Cepheus, and at one time boasted that she was more beautiful than even the sea nymphs. The nymphs in turn arranged it so that when the queen was placed among the stars following her death, she would sit in a chair which turned upside-down around the celestial north pole to teach her humility.

In 1572, a new star appeared within the constellation, named Tycho's Star after the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The star lived for only a year and a half, then flashed out brighter than the planet Venus in a correlation of brilliant white, then red, then died away.

Also one of the more popular brands of Windows CE handheld devices put out by Casio. There are numerous models (including HPC, Palm-sized PC, and Pocket PC versions). They are still not as popular as the iPaq, in their most modern incarnation.

The Palm-sized PC, and Pocket PC varieties are MIPS R4000 chips (others are ARM and SH3), and they can generally take one or two expansion cards. Lovingly known as "Cassie"s, they fill in a good percentage of the older CE 2.0 devices (slightly more pervasive than the trouble-riddled Jornadas).

Cassiopeia is a constellation in which exists a particularly noisy supernova remnant.

An interesting aspect of this stellar artifact is its recent association with a fairly unique channeling experiment wherein '6th Density' beings calling themselves 'Cassiopaeans' transmit information via Ouija board to a group in Florida, U.S.A..

What makes this particular experiment different from the many hundreds of other channeling groups, (of varying levels of credibility), is the seeming clarity and unusual type of information transmitted.

Of the more fascinating assertions made by the 'Cassiopaeans' is that the Earth, as currently perceived and deemed normal by most of its inhabitants, is in fact a highly engineered environment maintained by various '4th Density' alien groups for the purpose of creating a food source. '4th Density' aliens, it is asserted, feed on the extreme psychic energy created when lower density beings, (humans), are tortured and killed or otherwise suffer various forms of stress, such as disease, romantic tension, orgasm, work related anxiety, etc.

According to the Cassiopaeans, Earth is due for a dramatic and catastrophic change with the arrival of a galactic phenomenon referred to as The Wave. A large scale alien invasion force is also predicted to arrive at this time. All of this is supposedly due to occur sometime around 2006, give or take 6 years. (Time, according to the channeled source, is an illusion and the speed at which it appears to move is highly susceptible to forces beyond human cognition.)

Cassiopeia is a beautiful constellation at the edge of the Milky Way that can be readily found in the N.E. skies this time of year (August)in the Northern hemisphere. It is quite recognizable, because if its "W" or "M" shape. It's near the Perseus constellation family, which is the direction that the annual Perseid Meteor Shower comes from. It's also easy to pick out because it's directly opposite the Big Dipper across the North Star. The best thing about Cassiopeia, though, is the wonderful legend that is associated with it. I told my kids and varied neighborhood kids this story, and they loved it.

The legend goes that long ago Cassiopeia was the wife of Cepheus and the mother of Andromeda. She was very beautiful, but also very vain. Ol' Cass bragged that she was even more beautiful than the sea nymphs, goddesses of incredible beauty, who ruled over nature. The nymphs got mad and begged the God of the Sea, Poseidon, to punish her. Poseidon unleashed a giant monster, Cetus, to destroy Cassiopeia's homeland. The only way the destruction could be stopped was if Andromeda, the beloved daughter of Cassiopeia, was chained to a rock in the sea to be given as an offering to Cetus. Luckily for everyone but Cetus, the legendary hero Perseus was passing by and saw the plight of the daughter, and drew his sword and slew (what a cool word) the monster. Of course, as usually happens in legends, Perseus and Andromeda fell in love and lived happily ever after. But the cause of all the turmoil, Cassiopeia, was punished by Zeus for her vanity, and banished to the heavens, forever to sit among the stars. To teach her humility, she was to hang head downward half of the time.

Looking in the N.E. sky in early evening, you can pick out the outline of Cassiopeia sitting in her chair. For part of the night she sits proudly upright, but as the evening progresses, and the constellation rotates around the North Star (Polaris), Cassiopeia hangs head down.

Cas`si*o*pe"ia (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. .] Astron.

A constellation of the northern hemisphere, situated between Capheus and Perseus; -- so called in honor of the wife of Cepheus, a fabuolous king of Ethiopia.

Cassiopeia's Chair, a group of six stars, in Cassiopeia, somewhat resembling a chair.

 

© Webster 1913.