Volans the Flying Fish in southern skies

Table of Contents

Volans the Flying Fish is a constellation in Southern Hemisphere skies that you can finest perspective in March. Appropriately, the Flying Fish appears to cross from the h2o over portion of a ship’s keel, also identified as the constellation Carina. At the time there was a mighty ship of stqrs – called Argo Navis – that sailed southern skies. The Intercontinental Astronomical Union formally divided the fantastic ship Argo into pieces (Carina the Keel, Puppis the Poop Deck or Stern, Vela the Sails) in 1930.
The Traveling Fish Volans swims in the sky apart this celestial ship. The German astronomer and celestial mapmaker Johann Bayer developed it in 1603. The constellation was after termed PiscisVolans, the Flying Fish. Afterwards, it was shortened merely to Volans.
And, if you at any time see it, you’ll obtain that Volans has a handful of stars resembling the wings of a flying fish. The website ConstellationsofWords.com factors out:
Volans, a fish traveling, evokes the thought of a issue in a overseas ecosystem. ‘A fish out of water’ is a metaphor for some thing getting out of its ingredient. It is a stranger, exile, overseas.
And a celestial traveling fish is even additional so!
See Volans the Flying Fish
Carina is your crucial to seeing Volans, if you ever come across you standing beneath Southern Hemisphere skies. The constellation Carina has two relatively vivid stars to enable you out, and Volans is in between them.
The to start with is Alpha Carinae, or Canopus, the 2nd-brightest star in the evening sky just after Sirius. Canopus shines at magnitude -.6 and is almost overhead on March and early April evenings. You can’t pass up it!
The other helper star for getting Volans is Beta Carinae, also acknowledged by the good name Miaplacidus. It lies to the southeast of Canopus and is moderately vibrant at magnitude +1.6.
Just a short soar absent from Miaplacidus, again in the direction of Canopus, you’ll discover Volans.

The stars of Volans
The brightest star in Volans is Beta Volantis at magnitude 3.76. It lies 108 mild-yrs away. Future is Gamma 2 Volantis, shining at magnitude 3.75 from a length of 137 light-many years. (Gamma 1 Volantis is 14 arcseconds away from Gamma 2 but only magnitude 5.5. It lies 132 light-decades away.)
The 3rd brightest star in Volans is Zeta Volantis. Zeta Volantis shines at magnitude 3.93 at a length of 132 mild-yrs. Delta Volantis is fourth brightest, shining at magnitude 3.97 from a hefty 671 light-weight-decades away. The fifth brightest star of these equally vivid stars received the Alpha label – Alpha Volantis – at magnitude 3.99. It lies 124 gentle-many years absent. Volans’ sixth brightest star and the previous a person of notice is closest to the middle of the constellation, Epsilon Volantis. Epsilon is magnitude 4.34 and lies 642 gentle-a long time absent.
https://www.youtube.com/view?v=IxVVzF9s7zw
Galaxies in Volans
The Milky Way runs by way of one fifty percent of Volans, but the other 50 % makes it possible for for a view out into the deeper universe. This is where by observers can locate two galaxies visible through bigger telescopes, NGC 2434 and NGC 2442.
NGC 2434 is magnitude 11.2 with a shiny central main. The other galaxy, NGC 2442 at magnitude 11., is technically two galaxies colliding. NGC 2442 goes by the nickname of the Meathook Galaxy. Study extra about the Meathook Galaxy right here, and delight in a video clip from the European Southern Observatory zooming into this Southern Hemisphere marvel below.

Base line: Volans the Traveling Fish is a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere that appropriately lies subsequent to Carina the Keel. You can spot the Flying Fish on March nights.