Starwatch: the Garnet Star, Cepheus’s red gem, is a thing of beauty

Known as Cepheid variables, stars in constellation are used to measure distances to nearby galaxies

This week, we're going to concentrate on an often overlooked northern constellation. Cepheus is named after the king of ancient Aethiopia in Greek mythology. Part of the Perseus myth, Cepheus is married to Cassiopeia and is the father of Andromeda, the princess whom Perseus saved from the sea monster Cetus.

Cepheus is one of the 48 constellations listed by the astronomer Ptolemy in the second century. The constellation is easy to miss as it contains only moderately bright to faint stars, but its shape is distinctive once located.