Gemini - Geminis - acousmatic music - stereophonic / quadraphonic 2000 / 2001
Composition: Gustavo Chab 7.35"
Adaptable and versatile
Air sign
Mutable
Communicative and witty
Intellectual and eloquent
Accelerates and simplifies
is ruled by Mercury
Stars
The constellation contains 85 stars visible to observation on Earth without a telescope.
The brightest star in Gemini is Pollux, and the second brightest is Castor. Castor's Bayer designation as "Alpha" is attributable to a mistake by Johann Bayer, who gave his eponymous designations in 1603.
Imaginary - sounds in space
Imaginary - sounds in space
α Gem (Castor): the second brightest in the constellation after Pollux. Castor is a sextuple star system 52 light-years from Earth, which appears as a magnitude 1.6 blue-white star to the unaided eye. Two spectroscopic binaries are visible at magnitudes 1.9 and 3.0 with a period of 470 years. A wide-set red dwarf star is also a part of the system; this star is an Algol-type eclipsing binary star with a period of 19.5 hours; its minimum magnitude is 9.8 and its maximum magnitude is 9.3.
β Gem (Pollux): the brightest star in Gemini, it is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 1.2, 34 light-years from Earth. Pollux has an extrasolar planet revolving around it, as do two other stars in Gemini, HD 50554, and HD 59686.
γ Gem (Alhena): a blue-white hued star of magnitude 1.9, 105 light-years from earth.
δ Gem (Wasat): a long-period binary star 59 light-years from Earth. The primary is a white star of magnitude 3.5, and the secondary is an orange dwarf star of magnitude 8.2. The period is over 1000 years; it is divisible in medium amateur telescopes.
ε Gem (Mebsuta): a double star, the primary is a yellow supergiant of magnitude 3.1, 900 light-years from Earth. The optical companion, of magnitude 9.2, is visible in binoculars and small telescopes.[7]
ζ Gem (Mekbuda): a double star, the primary is a Cepheid variable star with a period of 10.2 days; its minimum magnitude is 4.2 and its maximum magnitude is 3.6. It is a yellow supergiant, 1200 light-years from Earth, with a radius that is 60 times solar, making it approximately 220,000 times the size of the Sun. The companion, a magnitude 7.6 star, is visible in binoculars and small amateur telescopes.
η Gem: a binary star with a variable component. 350 light-years away, it has a period of 500 years and is only divisible in large amateur telescopes. The primary is a semi-regular red giant with a period of 233 days; its minimum magnitude is 3.9 and its maximum magnitude is 3.1. The secondary is of magnitude 6.[7]
κ Gem: a binary star 143 light-years from Earth. The primary is a yellow giant of magnitude 3.6; the secondary is of magnitude 8. The two are only divisible in larger amateur instruments because of the discrepancy in brightness.
ν Gem: a double star divisible in binoculars and small amateur telescopes. The primary is a blue giant of magnitude 4.1, 500 light-years from Earth, and the secondary is of magnitude 8.
38 Gem: a binary star divisible in small amateur telescopes, 91 light-years from Earth. The primary is a white star of magnitude 4.8 and the secondary is a yellow star of magnitude 7.8.[7]
U Gem: a dwarf nova type cataclysmic variable discovered by J.R. Hind in 1855
