Northern Milky Way. Optical image of the Milky Way running through the northern constellations Cassiopeia, Perseus and Cepheus. North is at top. The Milky Way is the band of light crossing the sky formed from the millions of stars in the plane of our galaxy. Cassiopeia, the queen, is formed from the W of bright stars at centre right. Cepheus, the king, is at upper right. At lower right is the constellation Andromeda, the princess. At lower left is Perseus. These constellations represent a story from ancient Greek mythology in which Perseus rescued Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, from a monster.