Octans

Star References
1. Nu Octantis: The brightest star in the constellation at mag. 3.7. An orange giant.
2. Sigma Octantis: A yellow-white giant of mag. 5.5, lying about 270 light-years away. It is the closest star to the south pole visible with the naked eye.

Deep-Sky Objects

There are no deep-sky objects of interest in this constellation.

Mythology

Octans represents an octant, an instrument of navigation used before the sextant.

Interesting Facts

1. Octans contains the south pole and even furnishes a star, Sigma Octantis, only 1° away from this important navigational point. However, Sigma Octantis is only of mag. 5.5 and as such is more than 22 times fainter than Polaris, the North Star. It is rather ironic that this constellation represents a navigator's instrument, since Sigma Octantis was so useless in navigation that the south pole was instead located using the stars of Crux.

Created by Dan Corbett, Kate Stafford, and Patrick Wright for ThinkQuest.