Volans

Volans is a small, faint constellation, visible in the far southern evening sky in the months around January.

The name ‘Volans’ is short for ‘Piscis Volans’, Latin for ‘flying fish’. It represents a real species of fish which can jump out of the water and glide on wings over distances of around 50 metres.

Volans is among the dozen constellations introduced by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman which celebrate rare or exotic animals, and it first
appeared on star maps in 1598.

It does not contain any stars brighter than mag 3.8, and its only deep sky objects are faint galaxies.

Volans represents a type of tropical fish that can jump out of the water and glide through the air on wings. In early celestial maps, the flying fish was often depicted as accompanying the ship Argo Navis, and being chased by the predatory fish represented by the adjoining constellation Dorado.

In the Indian astronomy system, Volans is called ಶಫರೀ (Shaphari).

Volans contains:

• Stars
  • γ²-Vol (mag 3.8)
  • β-Vol (mag 3.8)
  • ζ-Vol (mag 4.0)
  • δ-Vol (mag 4.0)
  • α-Vol (mag 4.0)
  • ε-Vol (mag 4.4)
  • HD 70514 (mag 5.1)
  • HD 53501 (mag 5.2)
  • θ-Vol (mag 5.2)
  • η-Vol (mag 5.3)
  • κ¹-Vol (mag 5.3)
  • HD 76143 (mag 5.3)
  • γ¹-Vol (mag 5.4)
  • ι-Vol (mag 5.4)
  • HD 72337 (mag 5.5)
  • κ²-Vol (mag 5.6)
  • HD 64484 (mag 5.8)
  • HD 77887 (mag 5.9)
  • HD 71863 (mag 5.9)
  • HD 75171 (mag 6.0)
  • HD 50002 (mag 6.1)
  • HD 76270 (mag 6.1)
  • HD 73468 (mag 6.1)
  • HD 63584 (mag 6.2)
  • HD 75116 (mag 6.3)
• Open Clusters
  None
• Globular Clusters
  None
• Galaxy
  • NGC 2442 (mag 10.4)
  • NGC 2434 (mag 11.3)
  • NGC 2305 (mag 12.8)
  • NGC 2307 (mag 13.4)
  • NGC 2601 (mag 13.4)
  • NGC 2466 (mag 13.4)
  • IC 2202 (mag 13.6)
  • NGC 2788 (mag 14.5)
  • NGC 2397 (mag 15.0)