Generalities: it is a zodiacal constellation  of the southern sky, in which some millennia ago the  Sun  reached the winter solstice. Nowadays, because of the precession motion , this position is reached in the Sagittarius. The Sun crosses it in the last decade of January and in the first half of February. Overall it is a  little bright constellation, as it is deprived of bright stars . It transits at midnight in August.

Origins and mythology: the population of the Caldeis already saw a goat in it. According to some authors of the first centuries after Christ, its name is owed to the fact that, as goats scramble up, so the Sun at this point starts its ascent again, after the winter solstice.
Other mythological traditions identify it with the demigod Pan.

Stars: the Capricorn shows an only star under  magnitude 3 and  five stars altogether  under  magnitude 4. The brightest star is the delta of magnitude 2.87, named Deneb Algedi, of white color, about 49 light-years far.

Table of stars brighter than magnitude 3.5
 

Star	Proper name	Magnitude	Spectrum	Colour	Distance (light-years)	Notes
Delta	Deneb Algedi	2.87 (variabile)	A5	white	49
Beta	Dabih	3.08	F8	yellow	104
Alpha 2	Secunda Gaedi	3.57	G9	orange	117	Couple with alpha1, visible through naked eye
Gamma	Nashira	3.68	F0p	white-yellow	59
Zeta		3.74	G4	yellow	1470

Other objects: in the Capricorn a quite interesting globular cluster is found, named M30.
 

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