Tucana
Sign in to saveTucana (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 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 a
AI overview
Tucana is a constellation in the southern sky named after the toucan bird, created in the late sixteenth century by astronomer Petrus Plancius based on observations from the southern hemisphere. It matters as one of the twelve new constellations introduced during the Age of Exploration that helped European astronomers map and catalog the previously unfamiliar stars of the southern celestial hemisphere.
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Key facts
- Constellation.name
- Tucana
- Constellation.abbreviation
- Tuc
- Constellation.genitive
- Tucanae
- Constellation.pronounce
- ,genitive
- Constellation.symbolism
- the toucan
- Constellation.RA
- –
- Constellation.dec
- −56.31°–−75.35°
- Constellation.family
- Bayer
- Constellation.quadrant
- SQ1
- Constellation.areatotal
- 295
- Constellation.arearank
- 48th
- Constellation.numbermainstars
- 3
- Constellation.numberbfstars
Article
10 sectionsContents
- History
- Characteristics
- Features
- Stars
- Deep-sky objects
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Cited texts
- External links
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 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".
Tucana is not a prominent constellation as all of its stars are third magnitude or fainter; the brightest is Alpha Tucanae with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.87. Beta Tucanae is a star system with six member stars, while Kappa is a quadruple system. The constellation contains 47 Tucanae, one of the brightest globular clusters in the sky, and most of the Small Magellanic Cloud.