I had a stroke at the beginning of October 2021. The observatory quit working well and so did I on my left side.

Right before my stroke I replaced the observatory camera with my modified Canon Rebel XT1 color camera. My aim was to make things a little more simple. So to keep things simple and test out the observatory I have chosen to take a picture of a star. The star I have chosen is named “Alpharetz” and oddly shares the corner of constellations Andromeda and Pegasus. Originally Alpharetz was in Pegasus but now makes the top of the “V” of Andromeda. The constellation Andromeda is in the northern sky and is not wholey visible south of about 37 degrees north latitude. The head of Andromeda overlaps Pegasus at the horse’s midriff. Alpharetz uniquely shares the northeast corner position of the “Square of Pegasus.”

The star lore of Andromeda involves the cast of the nearby constellations of Cetus, Cepheus, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Pegasus and Andromeda. Queen (of Ethiopia)  Cassiopeia, which is the W shaped constellation near Andromeda, bragged that she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than the sea nymphs. The nymphs were offended and complained to their protector the sea god Poseidon. Poseidon struck the sea with his trident and called the the sea monster Cetus from the deep to destroy all of Ethiopia. King Cepheus of Ethiopia consulted an oracle to learn how to save his kingdom. The oracle told the king that the only way to save his kingdom was to chain his beautiful daughter Andromeda to the seashore to be destroyed by the monster Cetus. The king, being the wimp he was, decided to do that and had Andromeda chained to the shore. But as Cetus approached the hero Perseus appeared on his winged horse Pegasus. Perseus looked at Andromeda and was smitten by her beauty. He slew Cetus and claimed the hand of  Andromeda. They lived a long and happy life together and ultimately all the characters in the story were given a place in the sky.

Alphatretz is the big bright star in the upper right.

Stellarium – You can see by the constellation boundaries that Alpheratz barely makes it into Andromeda.

Astrometry.net

Astrometry.net