Like other "watery” constellations, Pisces was first created by the Babylonians and then taken over by the Ancient Greeks. It was represented by two fishes held together by a ribbon. In one Greek myth, the two fishes were Aphrodite and her son Eros who hid in the Euphrates River from the fearsome Typhon, a serpentine monster. The First Point of Aries, where the Sun crosses the celestial equator at the spring (or vernal) equinox, now lies in Pisces thanks to the precession of the equinoxes.

Pisces is a dim constellation; none of its stars are brighter than 4th magnitude, which makes it difficult to observe in Havering. However, the five-sided shape of the Circlet can be seen in binoculars below the Square of Pegasus. The brightest star (magnitude 3.6) in the constellation is Alpherg (Eta Piscium) which means “emptying”. It is a yellow giant. Alrescha, meaning "the cord" that binds the fishes, is Alpha Piscium, a hot A type star. Fumalsamakah (Beta Piscium) means the mouth of the (western) fish and hence has the same meaning as Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus.

Pisces is devoid of Messier objects apart from the face-on galaxy Messier 74, which is reputed to be the most difficult Messier object to observe. It does, however, contain three good doubles. Alrescha is a close pair of brilliantly white stars (mag. 4.1 and 5.2), which requires at least a three-inch telescope and a high magnification to be split; it is well worth the effort. Revati (Zeta Piscium) [1] is an easy double with two yellow-white stars (mag. 5.2 and 6.3). The main star was named after a Hindu goddess by the IAU Working Group on Star Names. Psi1 Piscium [2] is an even wider pair of yellow-white stars which are almost equal in brightness (mag. 5.3 and 5.5). TX Piscium [3] is a red giant star which is also a carbon star. It is an irregular variable with a slight variation of 4.9 to 5.5, which makes it a naked-eye variable in a fairly dark area. Like other carbon stars, it is very red, with B-V value of 2.6.