Piscis Austrinus
Piscis - Austriniden
- Aquarius
- Capricorn
- Microscope
- Crane
- Sculptor
The Southern Fish ( Piscis Austrinus Latin ) is a constellation south of the celestial equator.
Description
The Southern Fish is a little distinctive constellation south of Aquarius. Only the brightest star Fomalhaut is 1.16 m conspicuously bright, the other stars are not brighter than the fourth magnitude. The location of the constellation from Germany is seen low on the horizon.
History
The Southern Fish is one of the 48 constellations of the ancient Greek astronomy, which have already been described by Ptolemy.
Stars
Fomalhaut ( α Piscis Austrini ) is at a distance of 25 light years, one of the nearest neighbors of the sun. His name is of Arabic origin and means as much as " mouth of the fish ". Recordings of the Hubble Space Telescope show that the star is surrounded by a dust disk of 40 billion kilometers in diameter. Probably has a greater planet Fomalhaut in Figures 7 to 10 billion kilometers away (which is about 50 to 70 times the distance between Earth and Sun ).
Double stars
β PsA is a double star system 150 light- years away. The two components belong to the spectral classes A0 and G2. Because of their relatively wide angular distance they can already be resolved with a small telescope into individual stars.
The system η PsA is 500 light years away. It consists of two luminous stars of spectral types B7 and A2. They can be separated by a central telescopic.