Tucana Constellation: The Ultimate Guide

Tucana is classified as one of the 88 modern constellations, meaning that it has no associated history in ancient Western cultures because it was not visible in those regions.

It is known that Tucana is one of the faintest constellations and that most of its stars cannot be seen by a superficial view, so it was necessary to wait for telescopes to be invented to see it.

Tucana was one of twelve constellations established by astronomer Petrus Plancius from observations of the southern sky by explorers Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman.

Dirkszoon and Houtman explored the East Indies and sailed on the first Dutch commercial expedition, Eerste Schipvaart.

Tucana first appeared on a 35 cm (14 in diameter) celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius.

The first representation of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in the records of the German cartographer Johann Bayer in 1603. Houtman later included it in his catalog of southern stars alongside the constellations Phoenix, Grus, and Pavo.

In 1922 the International Astronomical Association added the constellation Tucana to the 88 official night sky constellations. Since then, it has not undergone modifications in its limits or its name.

In this way, Tucana covers 295 square degrees. This places it 48th in size among the 88 constellations in the night sky.

Tucana resides in the first quadrant of the Southern Hemisphere (SQ1) between latitudes 25° N and 90° S, which means that we can see the constellation in the night sky from all countries of the southern hemisphere of the earth and some countries of the northern hemisphere.

The constellation Tucana is visible in America, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica.

Tucana is not visible in regions above 25° N, such as the USA, Canada, Europe, Russia, Greenland, Japan, and Alaska.

The best month to visualize the constellation Tucana is November, which is visible during autumn in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere.

The constellation Tucana is of medium size, but it does not have stars of the first or second magnitude, so to find it, you can help yourself with the star Achernar which is very close.

The easiest way to locate the constellation Tucana is to locate the star Achernar, which is the brightest in the constellation Eridanus, then draw an imaginary line towards the star Peacock of the constellation Pavo. Tucana is halfway there.

The constellations bordering Tucana are Grus, Indus, Octans, Hydrus, Eridanus (corner), and Phoenix.

In addition, Tucana belongs to the Johann Bayer family of constellations; these include Apus, Chamaeleon, Dorado, Grus, Hydrus, Indus, Musca, Pavo, Phoenix, and Volans.

The constellation Tucana officially contains 45 stars, of which 8 form the central figure of the constellation, these are Alpha Tucanae, Gamma Tucanae, Zeta Tucanae, Beta Tucanae, Epsilon Tucanae, Delta Tucanae, Nu Tucanae and Eta Tucanae.

It is the brightest star in the constellation Tucana with an apparent magnitude of +2.87. It is located 199 light-years away from the Solar System.

Alfa Tucanae is located only 30º from the south celestial pole. Therefore, it is not observable in the northern hemisphere above latitude 25º.

Alpha Tucanae is an orange giant of spectral type K3III whose luminosity is 424 times greater than solar luminosity.

With an apparent magnitude of +3.99, it is the second brightest star in the constellation Tucana; it is located 75 light-years from Earth.

Gamma Tucanae is a white-yellow main-sequence star of spectral type F4V. It has an effective temperature of 6678 K and is 11.3 times more luminous than the Sun.

Located 28 light-years from the solar system Zeta Tucanae is the third brightest star in the constellation, with an apparent magnitude of +4.23.

Zeta Tucanae is a white-yellow star of spectral type F9V whose effective temperature is 5900 K, about 120 K hotter than the Sun. With a mass similar to the solar.

Tucana is also home to several deep-sky objects. Deep-sky objects often mean star clusters, nebulae (interstellar cloud bodies), or galaxies.

In the case of Tucana, it has very few deep-sky objects, having only a couple of galaxies and globular cumulus, the most notable:

It is an irregular dwarf galaxy close to the Milky Way; it lies an average of 200,000 light-years away and is the most notable deep-sky object in the constellation Tucana.

It is one of the most distant objects visible to the naked eye. It is a hundred times smaller than the Milky Way.

It is a globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana. It is about 16,700 light-years from Earth and has a diameter of about 120 light-years. It can be seen with the naked eye as it has a visual magnitude of 4.0.

It is close to the Small Magellanic Cloud, but they have no physical relationship. Only by coincidence are they in the same line of sight.

Tucana is one of the constellations located in the southern celestial hemisphere. Its name comes from Latin and represents the South American bird "Toucan."

Tucana is one of the 88 modern constellations, so its name is not derived from a myth, history, or ancient legend like the most famous constellations.

The constellation Tucana is located between 25° N and 90° S. The best month to observe the constellation is in November.

The easiest way to locate the constellation Tucana is to locate the star Achernar, which is the brightest in the constellation Eridanus, then draw an imaginary line towards the star Peacock of the constellation Pavo. Tucana is located halfway there.

The brightest star in the constellation Tucana is Alpha Tucanae (α Tuc/HD 211416/HR 8502), with an apparent magnitude of +2.87.

The most notable deep sky body of the constellation Toucana is the Small Magellanic Cloud "SMC" (NGC 292).

1. https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/tucana-constellation/
2. http://www.seasky.org/constellations/constellation-tucana.html
3. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tucana
4. https://earthsky.org/constellations/tucana-the-toucan-small-magellanic-cloud/