The constellation Capricornus, the sea goat, is depicted as a goat with the tail of a fish, and has been for over three thousand years. The origins of this unlikely and improbable creature are lost in antiquity. Some say the figure of a goat was in an area of the sky historically known as the sea. Other tales refer to the ancient Greek god Pan, half goat, half man, who leaped into the sea and disguised himself as half goat, half fish, to escape the monster Typhon. Whatever the source of the figure, it is recognised as a sea goat to this day, as illustrated above in one of the 32 cards produced in the early 19th century called Urania's Mirror. All we are told in the guidebook that accompanied the cards is that they were produced by "a young lady" to make the study of astronomy "familiar and amusing".

Three of the stars in Capricornus have Arabic names. Alpha Capricorni is called Al Giedi, the goat. Beta Capricorni is Dabih, meaning butcher, presumably because goats were routinely butchered for their meat. Delta Capricorni is, quite naturally, is called Deneb Algiedi, tail of the goat. The constellation has one Messier object - a globular cluster named M30, shown below.

Capricornus is also the traditional tenth "sign" of the zodiac, the group of constellations that girdle the ecliptic - the path the Sun, Moon and planets appear to follow across the sky, also known as the plane of the solar system.

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