At the Cassiopeia Constelation a Bipolar Nebula

Image courtesy T.A. Rector and H. Schweiker, WIYN/UAA/NOAO/NSF

Cassiopeia is now known as a far away constelation but once Cassiopeia was known, on the Greek mythology as the Queen, wife of king Cephueus. The Queen was vain and she challenged Poseidon,, saying that she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than the Nereids, the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus.

Cassiopea as a constellation

This brought desgrace to the kingdom and caused the wrath of Poseidon ordering floods to the country and bringing misery to everyone. In a way to try to calm down Poseidon the sovereigns consulted a wise oracle and they were advised to offer their daughter Andromeda in sacrifice. Andromeda was chained to a rock, at the sea's edge, and left there to helplessly await her fate at the hands of Cetus. But the hero Perseus arrived in time, saved Andromeda, and ultimately became her husband.

But Cassiopeia could not escape her punishment, and she was placed in heavens tied to a chair in such a position that, as she circles the celestial pole in her throne, she is upside-down half the time. The constellation resembles the chair that originally represented an instrument of torture. Cassiopeia is not always represented tied to the chair in torment, in some later drawings she is holding a mirror, symbol of her vanity, while in others she holds a palm leaf, a symbolism that is not clear.
As it is near the pole star, the constellation Cassiopeia can be seen the whole year from the northern hemisphere, although sometimes upside down.

I remembered this story when I looked at this wonderful picture taken by the National Optical Astronomy Observatorys in Tucson, Arizona, showing the unusual shape of the planetary nebula KjPn8, which lies in the constellation of Cassiopeia.

Despite their name, planetary nebulae are actually the remains of dead sunlike stars. This bipolar nebula's complex structure was most likely caused by irregular ejections of gas as its star puffed up and shed its outer layers of gas. from here