Pisces Constellation

Pisces, the Fishes, is a faint, sprawling constellation representing two fish tied together at the tail by a cord, swimming in opposite directions across the northern autumn sky. The image comes from a Greek myth in which Aphrodite and her son Eros, caught by surprise by the monstrous Typhon, leapt into a river and transformed themselves into fish to escape, tying themselves together so they would not be separated in the chaos. Though visually unremarkable — no star in Pisces is brighter than magnitude 3.6 — it holds a quietly important title today: the constellation currently hosts the vernal equinox point, the marker from which astronomers measure celestial coordinates.

Pisces at a Glance

• AbbreviationPsc
• Genitive FormPiscium
• MeaningThe Fishes
• Constellation FamilyZodiac
• Area889 sq. degrees (14th largest of 88)
• Right Ascension22h 50m – 2h 05m
• Declination+1.5° to +33.5°
• Brightest StarAlpherg (magnitude 3.62)
• Best Evening ViewingNovember, visible 90°N to 65°S
• Sun's Actual TransitMarch 11 – April 18 (astrology: February 19 – March 20)

Mythology and History

According to the myth, Aphrodite, goddess of love, and her son Eros were near the Euphrates river when Typhon, a monstrous offspring of Gaia sent to overthrow the Olympian gods, suddenly appeared. To escape, the two transformed themselves into fish and dove into the river, tying their tails together with a cord so that neither would be swept away or lost from the other in the current. Zeus later placed the pair among the stars to commemorate their narrow escape. Pisces was one of the 48 constellations recorded by Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD, and it has quietly grown in importance since: because of the precession of Earth's axis, the vernal equinox — once located in Aries — has slowly drifted into Pisces, where it will remain for centuries to come.

Notable Stars in Pisces

Alpherg, Pisces's brightest star at just magnitude 3.62, is a yellow giant roughly 294 light-years from Earth — an unusually faint "brightest star" compared to most other constellations, reflecting how dim Pisces is overall. Alrescha marks the knot in the cord joining the two fish and is itself a close binary star, its name derived from the Arabic word for "the cord" or "the well rope."

Deep-Sky Objects

Pisces contains just one Messier object, M74, a face-on spiral galaxy roughly 32 million light-years away. Its low surface brightness makes it a challenging naked-eye or small-telescope target despite its fame among astrophotographers for its finely detailed, symmetrical spiral arms.

• M74 — a faint, face-on spiral galaxy roughly 32 million light-years away, prized by astrophotographers for its finely detailed, symmetrical arms despite its low surface brightness

Neighboring Constellations and How to Find It

Pisces stretches across a large area south of Andromeda and Pegasus, and is easiest to locate by first finding the Great Square of Pegasus and scanning south toward a faint, roughly circular pattern of stars known as the Circlet, which marks one of the two fish. It climbs highest in the evening sky around November and requires a dark, clear night to trace fully. Pisces borders Triangulum, Andromeda, Pegasus, Aquarius, Cetus, and Aries.

Pisces is also associated with the Piscids meteor shower, visible to observers who track where these annual displays radiate from.