The Constellation Volans
Volans is a small, faint constellation, visible in the far southern evening sky in the months around January.
The name ‘Volans’ is short for ‘Piscis Volans’, Latin for ‘flying fish’. It represents a real species of fish which can jump out of the water and glide on wings over distances of around 50 metres.
Volans is among the dozen constellations introduced by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman which celebrate rare or exotic animals, and it first appeared on star maps in 1598.
It does not contain any stars brighter than mag 3.8, and its only deep sky objects are faint galaxies.
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 |
| γ²-Vol (mag 3.8) | NGC 2348 | NGC 2442 (mag 10.6) | |
| β-Vol (mag 3.8) | NGC 2434 (mag 11.3) | ||
| ζ-Vol (mag 4.0) | NGC 2305 (mag 11.7) | ||
| δ-Vol (mag 4.0) | NGC 2397 (mag 12.0) | ||
| α-Vol (mag 4.0) | NGC 2307 (mag 12.1) | ||
| ε-Vol (mag 4.4) | NGC 2466 (mag 13.1) | ||
| HIP 40680 (mag 5.1) | NGC 2601 (mag 13.4) | ||
| HIP 33682 (mag 5.2) | IC 2202 (mag 13.6) | ||
| θ-Vol (mag 5.2) | NGC 2788 (mag 14.5) | ||
| η-Vol (mag 5.3) | |||
| κ¹-Vol (mag 5.3) | |||
| HIP 43414 (mag 5.3) | |||
| γ¹-Vol (mag 5.4) | |||
| ι-Vol (mag 5.4) | |||
| HIP 41451 (mag 5.5) | |||
| κ²-Vol (mag 5.6) | |||
| HIP 38210 (mag 5.8) | |||
| HIP 44283 (mag 5.9) | |||
| HIP 41321 (mag 5.9) | |||
| HIP 42895 (mag 6.0) | |||
| HIP 32332 (mag 6.1) | |||
| HIP 43351 (mag 6.1) | |||
| HIP 41907 (mag 6.1) | |||
| HIP 37720 (mag 6.2) | |||
| HIP 42850 (mag 6.3) | |||
| HIP 39041 (mag 6.3) | |||
| HIP 32222 (mag 6.4) | |||
| HIP 37773 (mag 6.4) | |||
| HIP 36346 (mag 6.4) | |||
| HIP 34270 (mag 6.5) |
