The history of the star Sceptrum

53 Eridanus, Sceptrum, is a star in the north east of the River Eridanus.

This star is a "left-over" from the now obsolete (non-IAU) constellation "Sceptrum Brandenburgicum", the "Brandenburg Sceptre". It contains four stars, of the 4th and 5th magnitudes, standing in a straight line north and south, below the first bend in the River Eridanus, west from Lepus.

The Chinese here had an asterism, Kew Yew, the nine Scallops of a Pennon, but in this they included mu (μ), omega (ω), and b of Eridanus.

[Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning, Richard Hinckley Allen, 1889].

The astrological influences of the constellation Eridanus

Legend: Eridanus represents the river Padus or Po into which Phaeton fell when slain by Jupiter for having set the world on fire by misguiding the chariot of his father Phoebus. [Robson*, p.44.]

Influences: According to Ptolemy all the stars with the exception of Achernar are like Saturn. Eridanus gives a love of knowledge and science, much travel and many changes, a position of authority, but danger of accidents especially at sea and of drowning. [Robson*, p.44.]