Capricornus

Capricornus (“The Goat”), in astronomy, the tenth sign of the zodiac (q.v.), represented by the symbol intended to denote the crooked horns of this animal. The word is derived from Lat. caper, a goat, and cornu, a horn. It is also a constellation of the southern hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century b.c.) and Aratus (3rd century b.c.); Ptolemy and Tycho Brahe catalogued 28 stars, Hevelius gave 29. It was represented by the ancients as a creature having the forepart a goat, and the hindpart a fish, or sometimes simply as a goat. An interesting member of this constellation is α-Capricorni, a pair of stars of 3rd and 4th magnitudes, each of which has a companion of the 9th magnitude.