Thursday, October 14, 2021

Constellation of the Month: Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish)

 

The constellation Piscis Austrinus...Latin for the Southern Fish...is easily visible in the southern sky for those of us in northern latitudes in mid-evening during October. The constellation's one claim to fame is its first-magnitude star Fomalhaut, which also happens to be the only star this bright in the autumn evening sky...once you get past Deneb in Cygnus. The rest of Piscis Austrinus' "prominent" stars, i.e. the ones that make up the connecting dots of the constellation, are of 4th magnitude or fainter. If you go out on a clear night anytime soon around 10 and look south, you'll see a rather flat triangle there of bright stars: two of them, the ones on the right are the planets Jupiter (in the middle) and Saturn (on the right/west)...Fomalhaut is its left/eastern point.  And if you go out tonight or tomorrow (10/14,15), you'll see the bright moon in the midst of them, just past first quarter phase. Fomalhaut is relatively near, as stars go...only about 25 light-years distant.  It's also been the locale in a number of science fiction tales as well. Even if you discount Fomalhaut's presence, in spite of the other relatively dim stars in it, Piscis Austrinus is easier to pick out of the sky than the Zodiac constellations Aquarius to its north and Pisces to its northeast...

Next month: another constellation...

No comments:

Post a Comment