The Constellation Grus
Grus is a small constellation in the southern sky, appearing highest in the evening sky in August.
Lying away from the plane of the Milky Way, it contains no bright deep sky objects, but is home to numerous galaxies of tenth magnitude or fainter.
Grus is one of the twelve constellations introduced by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman which celebrate exotic animals. It represents a crane, and first appeared on star maps in 1598.
Previously, this sky area was part of the constellation Piscis Austrinus, the southern fish. This heritage remains apparent in the names of some of its stars, for example its brightest star, Alnair, the fish's tail.
1598 (Keyser & de Houtman)
0.9% of the sky
365.5 square degrees
Grus contains no Messier objects
Grus contains no Caldwell objects
The following constellations neighbor Grus: Indus, Microscopium, Phoenix, Piscis Austrinus, Sculptor, Tucana.
Hover the pointer over the name of an object to highlight its position on the starchart to the right, or click to see more information.
| Stars | Open Clusters | Globular Clusters | Galaxies |
| Alnair (mag 1.8) | NGC 7424 (mag 10.2) | ||
| β-Gru (mag 2.1) | IC 5267 (mag 10.4) | ||
| γ-Gru (mag 3.0) | IC 1459 (mag 10.5) | ||
| ε-Gru (mag 3.5) | NGC 7144 (mag 11.0) | ||
| ι-Gru (mag 3.9) | NGC 7582 (mag 11.0) | ||
| δ¹-Gru (mag 4.0) | NGC 7418 (mag 11.0) | ||
| ζ-Gru (mag 4.1) | NGC 7145 (mag 11.1) | ||
| δ²-Gru (mag 4.2) | NGC 7213 (mag 11.2) | ||
| θ-Gru (mag 4.4) | NGC 7410 (mag 11.2) | ||
| λ-Gru (mag 4.5) | NGC 7531 (mag 11.2) | ||
| μ¹-Gru (mag 4.8) | NGC 7599 (mag 11.3) | ||
| ρ-Gru (mag 4.8) | IC 5201 (mag 11.4) | ||
| η-Gru (mag 4.9) | NGC 7552 (mag 11.4) | ||
| μ²-Gru (mag 5.1) | IC 5273 (mag 11.4) | ||
| ξ-Gru (mag 5.3) | IC 5181 (mag 11.5) | ||
| κ-Gru (mag 5.4) | NGC 7079 (mag 11.7) | ||
| HIP 110109 (mag 5.4) | IC 5240 (mag 11.7) | ||
| HIP 112832 (mag 5.4) | NGC 7456 (mag 11.9) | ||
| HIP 108294 (mag 5.4) | IC 5186 (mag 11.9) | ||
| ν-Gru (mag 5.5) | NGC 7421 (mag 12.0) | ||
| HIP 108543 (mag 5.5) | IC 5179 (mag 12.0) | ||
| HIP 112381 (mag 5.5) | NGC 7166 (mag 12.0) | ||
| O-Gru (mag 5.5) | NGC 7632 (mag 12.2) | ||
| φ-Gru (mag 5.5) | NGC 7462 (mag 12.2) | ||
| HIP 106429 (mag 5.6) | NGC 7070 (mag 12.3) | ||
| HIP 107649 (mag 5.6) | NGC 7590 (mag 12.3) | ||
| π²-Gru (mag 5.6) | NGC 7233 (mag 12.5) | ||
| HIP 113657 (mag 5.7) | NGC 7118 (mag 12.6) | ||
| υ-Gru (mag 5.7) | NGC 7307 (mag 12.6) | ||
| τ³-Gru (mag 5.7) | NGC 7162 (mag 12.7) |
