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:

 

  • 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

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


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