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> Constellation of Tucana
Constellation of Tucana
author: A.Fujii/David Malin Images/Novapix
reference: a-cst83-00002
Image Size 300 DPI: 51 * 39 cm
Tucana, represents the Toucan (Rhamphastos toco, a large-billed tropical bird), and was named by Johann Bayer in 1603. It was also known to some astronomers as Anser Americanus, the American Goose, as late as the 1870s. The constellation is circumpolar (never sets) for most of the southern hemisphere, and lies south of Phoenix, bordering on Octans which includes the south celestial pole. There are no named stars in Tucana, but it contains one of the finest globular clusters in the sky, 47 Tucanae. This is named for a star but is easily seen to be diffuse with the unaided eye. By chance 47 Tuc is seen alongside the much more distant Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite of the Milky Way. Â
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