A group of stars in the southern sky known as Tucana (The Toucan) is named for the South American bird of the same name. It is one of the twelve constellations that Petrus Plancius created in the latter part of the sixteenth century based on observations made by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Tucana was initially portrayed in Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometria of 1603 and on a 35-centimetre (14 in) celestial globe that Plancius and Jodocus Hondius published in Amsterdam in 1598. The names of its stars were given by French traveller and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. The combined name for the constellations Tucana, Grus, Phoenix, and Pavo is "Southern Birds."
Since all of the stars in Tucana are third magnitude or fainter, it is not a well-known constellation; the brightest star being Alpha Tucanae, with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.87. While Kappa is a quadruple system, Beta Tucanae is a stellar system with six members. Exoplanets have so far been discovered in five different star systems. One of the brightest globular clusters in the sky, 47 Tucanae, and the majority of the Small Magellanic Cloud is found in this constellation. |
Tucana is a spherical planet with Hydrus to the east, Grus and Phoenix to the north, Indus to the west, and Octans to the south as its borders. Its 295 square degrees put it in 48th place in terms of size among the eighty-eight constellations. The International Astronomical Union chose "Tuc" as the standard three-letter abbreviation for the constellation in 1922. (Russell 1922) A polygon of ten segments, established by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, defines the limits of the recognised constellations. These borders' right ascension coordinates in the equatorial coordinate system range from 22h 08.45m to 01h 24.82m, while their declination coordinates fall between 56.31° and 75.35°. It is a deep southern constellation that, in the Northern Hemisphere, is circumpolar in latitudes north of the 30th parallel and remains below the horizon at latitudes south of the 50th parallel. (Motz & Nathanson 1991)
History
Tucana is one of the twelve constellations that Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius named after observations of the southern sky made by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, two Dutch explorers who had travelled to the East Indies on the Eerste Schipvaart, the first Dutch trading expedition. It first appeared on a celestial globe that was 35 centimetres (14 in) in diameter and was printed in Amsterdam in 1598 by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius. The Uranometria of German cartographer Johann Bayer, published in 1603, contains the first representation of this constellation in a celestial atlas. It is portrayed as a toucan by both Plancius and Bayer. (Sawyer 1951) The next year, De Houtman listed it in his southern star catalogue as Den Indiaenschen Exster, op Indies Lang ghenaemt, "the Indian magpie, named Lang in the Indies," referring to a specific bird with a long beak, a hornbill, a bird native to the East Indies. It is shown with a casque in a heavenly globe by Willem Blaeu from 1603. While Caesius and Johannes Kepler called it Anser Americanus, or "American Goose," and Giovanni Battista Riccioli called it Pica Indica, it was read on Chinese charts as Niohu, or "bird's beak," and in England as "Brazilian Pye." (Allen 1963) The adjacent constellations Phoenix, Grus, and Pavo are referred to as the "Southern Birds" along with Tucana. (Moore 2000) |
Deed-sky Objects
Main stars - 3
Bayer stars - 17
Stars with planets - 5
Stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 - 1
Stars within 32 Ly - 2
Messier objects - 0
Bordering
constellations
- NGC 104 – Globular Cluster
- NGC 121 – Globular Cluster
- NGC 362 – Globular Cluster
- NGC 346 – Open Cluster associated with a Nebula in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC)
- NGC 7408 – Barred Spiral Galaxy
Main stars - 3
Bayer stars - 17
Stars with planets - 5
Stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 - 1
Stars within 32 Ly - 2
Messier objects - 0
Bordering
constellations
- Grus
- Indus
- Octans
- Hydrus
- Eridanus
- Phoenix