Antlia is a constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Its name means "pump" in Latin and Greek; it represents an air pump. Originally Antlia Pneumatica, the constellation was established by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century. Its non-specific (single-word) name, already in limited use, was preferred by John Herschel then welcomed by the astronomic community which officially accepted this. North of stars forming some of the sails of the ship Argo Navis, Antlia is completely visible from latitudes south of 49 degrees north.
Zeta Geminorum is a bright star with cluster components, distant optical components and a likely spectroscopic partner in the zodiac constellation of Gemini — in its south, on the left 'leg' of the twin Pollux. It is a classical Cepheid variable star, of which over 800 have been found in our galaxy. As such its regular pulsation and luminosity and its relative proximity means the star is a useful calibrator in computing the cosmic distance ladder. Based on parallax measurements, it is approximately 1,200 light-years from the Sun.
X Sagittarii is a variable star and candidate binary star system in the southern constellation of Sagittarius, near the western constellation boundary with Ophiuchus. It has a yellow-white hue and is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude that fluctuates around 4.54. The star is located at a distance of approximately 950 light years from the Sun based on parallax, and is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −10 km/s. The star has an absolute magnitude of around −2.85.
RV Tauri is a star in the constellation Taurus. It is a yellow supergiant and is the prototype of a class of pulsating variables known as RV Tauri variables. It is a post-AGB star and a spectroscopic binary about 4,700 light years away.
RV Tauri variables are luminous variable stars that have distinctive light variations with alternating deep and shallow minima.
V509 Cassiopeiae is one of two yellow hypergiant stars found in the constellation Cassiopeia, which also contains Rho Cassiopeiae.
HD 95109 is a Classical Cepheid variable, a type of variable star, in the constellation Carina. Its apparent magnitude is 6.86.
RS Puppis is a Cepheid variable star around 6,000 ly away in the constellation of Puppis. It is one of the biggest and brightest known Cepheids in the Milky Way galaxy and has one of the longest periods for this class of star at 41.5 days.
S Antliae is a W Ursae Majoris-type eclipsing binary star in Antlia.
Beta Doradus is the second brightest star in the southern constellation of Dorado. It has a variable apparent visual magnitude, visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere. Based upon parallax measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope, it is located at a distance of 1,040 light-years from Earth.
R Scuti is a star in the constellation of Scutum. It is a yellow supergiant and is a pulsating variable known as an RV Tauri variable. It was discovered in 1795 by Edward Pigott at a time when only a few variable stars were known to exist.
Classical Cepheids are a type of Cepheid variable star. They are population I variable stars that exhibit regular radial pulsations with periods of a few days to a few weeks and visual amplitudes from a few tenths of a magnitude to about 2 magnitudes.
W Virginis is the prototype W Virginis variable, a subclass of the Cepheid variable stars. It is located in the constellation Virgo, and varies between magnitudes 9.46 and 10.75 over a period of approximately 17 days.
Kappa Pavonis is a variable star in the constellation Pavo. It is the brightest W Virginis variable in the sky.
R Muscae is a yellow-white hued variable star in the southern constellation of Musca. It has a nominal apparent visual magnitude of 6.31, which is near the lower limit of visibility to the naked eye. The distance to this star, as determined from its annual parallax shift of 1.00 mas, is around 3,260 light years.
BG Crucis is a suspected binary star system in the southern constellation of Crux. It is visible to the naked eye as a faint yellow-white hued point of light with an apparent visual magnitude that fluctuates around 5.49. The system is located at a distance of approximately 1,830 light years from the Sun based on parallax, and is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −19 km/s.
SV Vulpeculae is a Classical Cepheid variable star in the constellation Vulpecula. It is a supergiant at a distance of 8,700 light years.
RU Camelopardalis, or RU Cam, is a W Virginis variable in the constellation of Camelopardalis. It is also a Carbon star, which is very unusual for a Cepheid variable.
X Crucis is a classical Cepheid variable star in the southern constellation of Crux.
S Sagittae, also known by the Flamsteed designation of 10 Sagittae, a Classical Cepheid variable in the constellation Sagitta that varies from magnitude 5.24 to 6.04 in 8.382 days. Its variable star designation of "S" indicates that it was the second star discovered to be variable in the constellation. Irish amateur astronomer John Ellard Gore was the first to observe its variability in 1885, and Ralph Hamilton Curtiss discovered its changing radial velocity in 1903–04. Harlow Shapley observed in 1916 that the spectrum of it and other Cepheids varied with its brightness, recording it as spectral type F0 leading to maximum, F4 at maximum, and G3 just before minimum brightness.
