Grus constellation lies in the southern sky. Its name means “the crane” in Latin.
The stars of Grus were once part of the constellation Piscis Austrinus. It was the Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius who created the constellation Grus from the observations of the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman in the late 16th century.
The constellation first appeared in a celestial atlas in 1603, in Johann Bayer’s Uranometria. In the early 17th century, it briefly went by an alternative name, Phoenicopterus, which means “the flamingo” in Latin.
FACTS, LOCATION & MAP
Grus is the 45th constellation in size, occupying an area of 366 square degrees in the sky. It is located in the fourth quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ4) and can be seen at latitudes between +34° and -90°. The neighboring constellations are Indus, Microscopium, Piscis Austrinus, Phoenix, Sculptor and Tucana.
Grus contains three stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 and one star located within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years) of Earth. The brightest star in the constellation is Alnair, Alpha Gruis, with an apparent magnitude of 1.74. The nearest star is Gliese 832 (spectral class M2V), located at a distance of only 16.15 light years from Earth.
Gliese 832 is also one of the six stars in Grus with known exoplanets. The others are HD 208487 (spectral class G2V), WASP-52 (G5IV), HD 213240 (G4IV), HD 215456 (G0.5V), and Tau-1 Gruis (G0IV). Gliese 832, HD 215456 and HD 208487 have two known planets each, while the other three stars have one orbiting planet.
Grus belongs to the Johann Bayer family of constellations, along with Apus, Chamaeleon, Dorado, Hydrus, Indus, Musca, Pavo, Phoenix, Tucana and Volans. Grus does not contain any Messier objects. There are no meteor showers associated with the constellation.
STORY
There are no myths associated with the constellation. Grus was one of the 12 constellations created by Dutch explorers in the late 16th century. The only connection the crane has with mythology lies in the fact that it was a sacred bird to the god Hermes.
The constellation was created from stars located to the south of the constellation Piscis Austrinus. The brightest star in Grus is called Alnair, which means “the bright one from the fish’s tail” in Arabic. Similarly, the proper name of Gamma Gruis, Al Dhanab, also means “the tail” in Arabic.
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