Tucana is also an alternate name for the Tucano language.

Tucana ('Toucan') is a southern constellation. The constellation was one of twelve constellations created by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman between 1595 and 1597. Johann Bayer copied the twelve southern constellations from a Plancius/Hondius globe in his 1603 Uranometria star atlas.

The majority of the constellations were named after various creatures that the 16th century explorers had encountered (e.g. Bird of Paradise, Chameleon, Toucan, Flying Fish) and there is no earlier mythology associated with them.

Notable features

Beta Tucanae is in fact a group of six stars which appear to be at least loosely bound into a system. The two brightest of these, Beta Tucanae A and Beta Tucanae C, are 27 arcseconds apart and have magnitudes of between 4 and 5. They are accompanied by a third star which is further away, separated by 9 arcminutes from them.

Kappa Tucanae is a group of four stars: two binary stars.

Lambda Tucanae is an optical double - that is, the name is give to two stars which appear close together from our viewpoint, but are in fact far apart in space. The two stars are known as Lambda 1 and Lambda 2. Lambda 1 is itself a binary star, with two components.

Notable deep sky objects

At the southern end of Tucana lies the Small Magellanic Cloud. The globular cluster 47 Tucanae (NGC 104) is also located within its boundaries, as is the Tucana Dwarf galaxy, which was discovered in 1990.

References

• Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion (2007). Stars and Planets Guide, Collins, London. ISBN 978-0007251209. Princeton University Press, Princeton. ISBN 978-0691135564.

External links

• The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Tucana
• Star Tales – Tucana