Tucana



Tucana is a constellation of stars 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 Keyserand Frederick de Houtman. Tucana first appeared on a 35-cm (14 in) diameter 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. Five star systems have been found to have exoplanets to date. The constellation contains 47 Tucanae, one of the brightest globular clusters in the sky, and most of the Small Magellanic Cloud. Irregular in shape, Tucana is bordered by Hydrus to the east, Grus and Phoenix (Constellation) to the north, Indus to the west and Octans to the south. Covering 295 square degrees, it ranks 48th of the 88 constellations in size.

Tucana is one of the twelve constellations established by the Dutch astronomerPetrus Plancius from the observations of the southern sky by the Dutch explorersPieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, who had sailed on the first Dutch trading expedition, known as the Eerste Schipvaart, to the East Indies. It first appeared on a 35-cm (14 in) diameter celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in the German cartographer Johann Bayer'sUranometria of 1603. Both Plancius and Bayer depict it as a toucan.[3][4] De Houtman included it in his southern star catalogue the same year under the Dutch name Den Indiaenschen Exster, op Indies Lang ghenaemt "the Indian magpie, named Lang in the Indies",[5] by this meaning a particular bird with a long beak—ahornbill, a bird native to the East Indies.

HGS Session References
HGS Sessions - Clearing Hyperspace Phantom Matrix - 3/12/2015