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The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, [b] are defined by a polygon of six segments (illustrated in infobox). In the equatorial coordinate system , the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 13 h 49.5 m and 18 h 27.3 m , while the declination coordinates are between −67. ...
The constellations Grus, Pavo, Phoenix and Tucana are collectively known as the "Southern Birds". The constellation's brightest star, Alpha Gruis, is also known as Alnair and appears as a 1.7-magnitude blue-white star. Beta Gruis is a red giant variable star with a minimum magnitude of 2.3 and a maximum magnitude of 2.0.
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.
The constellation stretches from roughly −39° to −57° declination, and from 23.5h to 2.5h of right ascension. The constellations Phoenix, Grus, Pavo and Tucana, are known as the Southern Birds. The brightest star, Alpha Phoenicis, is named Ankaa, an Arabic word meaning 'the Phoenix'. It is an orange giant of apparent magnitude 2.4.
These former constellations are often found in older books, star charts, or star catalogues. The 88 modern constellation names and boundaries were standardised by Eugene Delporte for the IAU in 1930, under an international agreement, removing any possible astronomical ambiguities between astronomers from different countries. [ 3 ]
The Bakairi people of Brazil had a sprawling constellation representing a bird snare. It included the bright stars of Crux, the southern part of Centaurus, Circinus, at least one star in Lupus, the bright stars of Musca, Beta and the optical double star Delta 1,2 Chamaeleontis: and some of the stars of Volans, and Mensa. [53]
Constellation positions change throughout the year due to night on Earth occurring at gradually different portions of its orbit around the Sun. As Earth rotates toward the east, the celestial sphere appears to rotate west, with stars circling counterclockwise around the northern pole star and clockwise around the southern pole star. [22]
Noctua (Latin: owl) was a constellation near the tail of Hydra in the southern celestial hemisphere, but is no longer recognized. [1] It was introduced by Alexander Jamieson in his 1822 work, A Celestial Atlas , and appeared in a derived collection of illustrated cards, Urania's Mirror . [ 2 ]