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The stars of the modern constellation Grus once formed the "tail" of Piscis Austrinus. In 1597 (or 1598), Petrus Plancius carved out a separate constellation and named it after the crane. It is a faint constellation, containing only one star brighter than 4th magnitude: Fomalhaut, which is 1st magnitude and the 18th-brightest star in the night sky.
IAU designated constellations in equirectangular projection (epoch B1875.0) In contemporary astronomy, 88 constellations are recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). [ 1] Each constellation is a region of the sky bordered by arcs of right ascension and declination, together covering the entire celestial sphere.
Tucana (The Toucan) is a constellation in the southern sky, named after the toucan, a South American bird. It is one of twelve constellations conceived in the late sixteenth century by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Tucana first appeared on a 35-centimetre-diameter (14 in) celestial ...
Leo, with Leo Minor above, as depicted in Urania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London c.1825. Leo is also home to a bright variable star, the red giant R Leonis. It is a Mira variable with a minimum magnitude of 10 and normal maximum magnitude of 6; it periodically brightens to magnitude 4.4.
IAU designated constellations by area. Hydra is the largest constellation, covering more than 1⁄32 of the night sky and 19 times the area of Crux, the smallest constellation. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) designates 88 constellations of stars. In the table below, they are ranked by the solid angle that they subtend in the sky ...
In Chinese astronomy and Chinese constellation records, The Big Dipper is called "Beidou" ( Chinese: 北斗; pinyin: Běi Dǒu ), which literally means Northern Dipper. It refers to an asterism equivalent to the Big Dipper. The Chinese name for Alpha Ursae Majoris is Beidou Yi ( Chinese: 北斗一; pinyin: Běi Dǒu yī; lit.
The Sun is the brightest star as viewed from Earth, at −26.78 mag. The second brightest is Sirius at −1.46 mag. For comparison, the brightest non-stellar objects in the Solar System have maximum brightnesses of: the Moon −12.7 mag [1] Venus −4.92 mag. Jupiter −2.94 mag. Mars −2.94 mag.
All stars but one can be associated with an IAU (International Astronomical Union) constellation. IAU constellations are areas of the sky. Although there are only 88 IAU constellations, the sky is actually divided into 89 irregularly shaped boxes as the constellation Serpens is split into two separate sections, Serpens Caput (the snake's head) to the west and Serpens Cauda (the snake's tail ...