Corvus
Origin
Corvus is a small constellation located about 20 degrees south of the celestial equator so it is visible from much of the northern hemisphere and all of the southern hemisphere. Corvus is one of the 48 constellations catalogued by Ptolemy of Alexandria in the second century which is a direct takeover from the Babylonian uranography. Even there, it formed a super-constellation with Hydra sitting on the tip of the tail of the huge dragon-like creature that became the Greek watersnake. Corvus is visible in the northern hemisphere in spring and summer (in the southern hemisphere in fall and winter).
Bright Stars
The brightest star in Corvus is Gienah (Gamma Corvi), shining at magnitude 2.59 and 165 light-years from Earth. Kraz (Beta Corvi) varies from magnitude 2.6 to 2.66 and lies 140 light-years away. Algorab (Delta Corvi) lies 87 light-years away and shines at magnitude 3.1. Minkar (Epsilon Corvi) has a visual magnitude of 3.02 and lies 303 light-years away. Together these four stars make up an asterism known as Spica’s Spanker or The Sail.
Photo of the constellation Corvus produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer.
The annotations are from a standardized set of 88 western IAU constellations and stick figures from Sky & Telescope. Please find here a non-annotated version of the image.
Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani
Latin name
Corvus
English name
The Crow
Pronunciation
CORE-vuss
Abbreviation
Crv
Notable Objects
Although Corvus has no Messier objects, there are a few galaxies and nebulae visible to moderate amateur telescopes. NGC 4361 is a planetary nebula shining at magnitude 10.3. Perhaps the most famous object in Corvus is the Antennae Galaxy, an interacting pair of 11th-magnitude galaxies (NGC 4038 and NGC 4039). The Antennae Galaxy lies 45 million light-years from Earth.
