Grus
Grus is a small constellation in the southern sky, appearing highest in the evening sky in August.
Lying away from the plane of the Milky Way, it contains no bright deep sky objects, but is home to numerous galaxies of tenth magnitude or fainter.
Grus is one of the twelve constellations introduced by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman which celebrate exotic animals. It represents a crane, and first appeared on star maps in 1598.
Previously, this sky area was part of the constellation Piscis Austrinus, the southern fish. This heritage remains apparent in the names of some of its stars, for example its brightest star, Alnair, the fish’s tail. In Chinese astronomy, Gamma and Lambda Gruis may have been included in the tub-shaped asterism Bàijiù, along with stars from Piscis Austrinus.[
In the Indian system Grus is called ಬಕ (Baka)
Grus contains:
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Stars
- Alnair (mag 1.8)
- β-Gru (mag 2.1)
- γ-Gru (mag 3.0)
- ε-Gru (mag 3.5)
- ι-Gru (mag 3.9)
- δ¹-Gru (mag 4.0)
- ζ-Gru (mag 4.1)
- δ²-Gru (mag 4.2)
- θ-Gru (mag 4.4)
- λ-Gru (mag 4.5)
- μ¹-Gru (mag 4.8)
- ρ-Gru (mag 4.8)
- η-Gru (mag 4.9)
- μ²-Gru (mag 5.1)
- ξ-Gru (mag 5.3)
- κ-Gru (mag 5.4)
- HD 211415 (mag 5.4)
- HD 216149 (mag 5.4)
- HD 208321 (mag 5.4)
- ν-Gru (mag 5.5)
- HD 208737 (mag 5.5)
- HD 215405 (mag 5.5)
- O-Gru (mag 5.5)
- φ-Gru (mag 5.5)
- HD 204960 (mag 5.6)
-
Open Clusters
- None
-
Globular Clusters
- None
-
Galaxy
- NGC 7424 (mag 10.4)
- IC 5267 (mag 10.5)
- NGC 7552 (mag 10.6)
- NGC 7582 (mag 10.6)
- NGC 7144 (mag 10.7)
- NGC 7145 (mag 11.2)
- NGC 7531 (mag 11.3)
- IC 5240 (mag 11.3)
- NGC 7412 (mag 11.4)
- NGC 7418 (mag 11.4)
- NGC 7599 (mag 11.4)
- IC 5273 (mag 11.4)
- IC 5201 (mag 11.5)
- NGC 7079 (mag 11.6)
- IC 5181 (mag 11.7)
- NGC 7097 (mag 11.7)
- NGC 7232 (mag 11.8)
- NGC 7410 (mag 11.8)
- IC 5186 (mag 11.8)
- NGC 7166 (mag 11.8)
- IC 1459 (mag 11.8)
- IC 5179 (mag 11.9)
- NGC 7421 (mag 11.9)
- NGC 7462 (mag 12.1)
- NGC 7213 (mag 12.1)
View Grus in 3D
Source: Wikipedia, in-the-sky.org
Image Courtesy: Sky&Telescope & IAU, Illustration Images linked from Urania's Mirror on Wikmedia Commons by Sidney Hall
Image Courtesy: Sky&Telescope & IAU, Illustration Images linked from Urania's Mirror on Wikmedia Commons by Sidney Hall