Apus
Written by Tammy Plotner
Apus
The faint southern constellation of Apus was one of the original twelve constellations created by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman between 1595 and 1597 on charts of the southern hemisphere and appeared in Johann Bayer's Uranometria of 1603. It is bordered by the constellations, Triangulum Australe, Circinus, Musca, Chamaeleon, Octans, Pavo and Ara. Its original name on Plancius' charts was "Avis Indica" – the Latin term for Indian Bee. Because of this error, the bordering constellation of Musca was later separated and renamed.
For binoculars, take a look at Alpha Apodis. This 3.8 magnitude star is located 411 light years away from Earth. Now move on to Delta. It is a wide double star which is two orange 5th-magnitude members separated by 103 arc seconds and an easy split. Or try observing Theta – its a variable star whose brightness ranges from magnitude 4.8 to 6.1 in a period of 109 days.
For telescopes, take a look at more difficult binary star Kappa-1 Apodis. The brightest component of this disparate pair has a magnitude of 5.4 and the companion is 12th magnitude, 27 arcseconds away. Need more? Then turn your gaze towards Kappa-2 only 0.63 degrees from Kappa-1. Kappa-1 Apodis is a binary star approximately 1020 light years from Earth. The primary component, Kappa-1 Apodis A, is a blue-white B-type subgiant with a mean apparent magnitude of +5.40. It is classified as a Gamma Cassiopeiae type variable star and its brightness varies from magnitude +5.43 to +5.61. The companion star, Kappa-1 Apodis B, is a 12th magnitude orange K-type subgiant. It is 27 arc seconds from the primary.
For larger telescopes, wander off and look at NGC 6101 located about seven degrees north of Gamma. Here we have a small, 14th magnitude globular cluster! If you're really good you can try for spiral galaxy IC 4633. It's so faint it doesn't even have a magnitude listing!
Constellation Chart Provided by Your Sky
Filed under: Astronomy
