Grus is a constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for the crane, a type of bird. It is one of twelve constellations conceived by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Grus first appeared on a 35-centimetre-diameter (14-inch) celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius and was depicted in Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometria of 1603. French explorer and astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille gave Bayer designations to its stars in 1756, some of which had been previously considered part of the neighbouring constellation Piscis Austrinus. The constellations Grus, Pavo, Phoenix and Tucana are collectively known as the "Southern Birds".
Tucana 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 globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius and was depicted in Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometria of 1603. French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille gave its stars Bayer designations in 1756. The constellations Tucana, Grus, Phoenix and Pavo are collectively known as the "Southern Birds".
Telescopium is a minor constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, one of twelve named in the 18th century by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille and one of several depicting scientific instruments. Its name is a Latinized form of the Greek word for telescope. Telescopium was later much reduced in size by Francis Baily and Benjamin Gould.
Lalande 21185 is a star in the south of Ursa Major. It is the apparent brightest red dwarf in the northern hemisphere. Despite this, and being relatively close by, it is very dim, being only magnitude 7.5 in visible light and thus too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. The star is visible through a small telescope or binoculars.
Perseus is a constellation in the northern sky, named after the Greek mythological hero Perseus. It is one of the 48 ancient constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and among the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It is located near several other constellations named after ancient Greek legends surrounding Perseus, including Andromeda to the west and Cassiopeia to the north. Perseus is also bordered by Aries and Taurus to the south, Auriga to the east, Camelopardalis to the north, and Triangulum to the west. Some star atlases during the early 19th century also depicted Perseus holding the disembodied head of Medusa, whose asterism was named together as Perseus et Caput Medusae; however, this never came into popular usage.
Circinus is a small, faint constellation in the southern sky, first defined in 1756 by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille. Its name is Latin for compass, referring to the drafting tool used for drawing circles. Its brightest star is Alpha Circini, with an apparent magnitude of 3.19. Slightly variable, it is the brightest rapidly oscillating Ap star in the night sky. AX Circini is a Cepheid variable visible with the unaided eye, and BX Circini is a faint star thought to have been formed from the merger of two white dwarfs. Two sun-like stars have planetary systems: HD 134060 has two small planets, and HD 129445 has a Jupiter-like planet. Supernova SN 185 appeared in Circinus in 185 AD and was recorded by Chinese observers. Two novae have been observed more recently, in the 20th century.
70 Ophiuchi is a binary star system located 16.6 light years away from the Earth. It is in the constellation Ophiuchus. At magnitude 4 it appears as a dim star visible to the unaided eye away from city lights.
Beta Lyrae officially named Sheliak, the traditional name of the system, is a multiple star system in the constellation of Lyra. Based on parallax measurements obtained during the Hipparcos mission, it is approximately 960 light-years distant from the Sun.
Kappa Tucanae, Latinised from, κ Tucanae, is a quintuple star system in the southern constellation Tucana. It is visible to the naked eye as a faint point of light with a combined apparent visual magnitude of +4.25. The system is located approximately 68 light years from the Sun based on parallax, and is drifting further away with a radial velocity of +8 km/s.
DM Lyrae is a dwarf nova in the constellation Lyra. This binary system is composed of a primary star of unknown type, and a white dwarf companion. It erupted in 1928 and 1996 and reached about magnitude 13.
Gliese 86 is a K-type main-sequence star approximately 35 light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. It has been confirmed that a white dwarf orbits the primary star. In 1998 the European Southern Observatory announced that an extrasolar planet was orbiting the star.
Beta Monocerotis is a triple star system in the constellation of Monoceros. To the naked eye, it appears as a single star with an apparent visual magnitude of approximately 3.74, making it the brightest visible star in the constellation. A telescope shows a curved line of three pale blue stars. William Herschel who discovered it in 1781 commented that it is "one of the most beautiful sights in the heavens". The star system consists of three Be stars, β Monocerotis A, β Monocerotis B, and β Monocerotis C. There is also an additional visual companion star that is probably not physically close to the other three stars.
Sarah Lee Lippincott, also known as Sarah Lee Lippincott Zimmerman, was an American astronomer. She was professor emerita of astronomy at Swarthmore College and director emerita of the college's Sproul Observatory. She was a pioneer in the use of astrometry to determine the character of binary stars and search for extrasolar planets.
George David Gatewood also known as George G. Gatewood, is an American astronomer and presently is professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Allegheny Observatory. He specializes in astronomy, astronomical instrumentation, statistical methods, stellar astrophysics, astrometric properties of nearby stars and the observational discovery and the study of planetary systems. He came to popular attention with his 1996 announcement of the discovery of a nearby multi-planet star system. This discovery has yet to be confirmed and is regarded with skepticism today.
μ Cygni, Latinised as Mu Cygni, is a binary star system in the northern constellation of Cygnus. It is visible to the naked eye as a faint point of light with a combined apparent visual magnitude of 4.49. The system is located 72 light years distant from the Sun, based on parallax, and is drifting further away with a radial velocity of +17 km/s.
HD 106515 is a binary star in the constellation of Virgo.
99 Herculis is the Flamsteed designation for a binary star system in the northern constellation of Hercules. It has the Bayer designation b Herculis, while 99 Herculis is the Flamsteed designation. This system has an apparent visual magnitude of 5.1, which, according to the Bortle scale, makes it faintly visible to the naked eye from suburban skies. Measurements made with the Hipparcos spacecraft show an annual parallax shift of 0.064″, corresponding to a physical distance of about 51.0 ly (15.6 pc) from the Sun. The system is moving further from the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of +1.7 km/s.
Sigma Coronae Borealis is a star system in the constellation of Corona Borealis. It is a quintuple star system containing three sunlike main-sequence stars and two other low-mass stars. The combined visual magnitude is 5.3 and the system lies 74 light years from Earth. σ CrB A is the variable star TZ Coronae Borealis.
ADS 1359 is a quadruple star system in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is composed of two sun like stars in an eclipsing binary with a 2.5-day period, which is in turn orbited by an A-type main-sequence star with a 185-year orbital period. There is also HD 236848 which is a distant proper motion companion.
GI Monocerotis, also known as Nova Monocerotis 1918, was a nova that erupted in the constellation Monoceros during 1918. It was discovered by Max Wolf on a photographic plate taken at the Heidelberg Observatory on 4 February 1918. At the time of its discovery, it had a photographic magnitude of 8.5, and had already passed its peak brightness. A search of plates taken at the Harvard College Observatory showed that it had a photographic magnitude of 5.4 on 1 January 1918, so it would have been visible to the naked eye around that time. By March 1918 it had dropped to ninth or tenth magnitude. By November 1920 it was a little fainter than 15th magnitude.
