Corvus, the Crow, is a southern constellation that transits the meridian an hour and a half after midnight on the first day of spring. It lies between Crater to the west, Hydra to the south and Virgo to the east and north. Hold your mouse cursor over the image to see constellation figures, boundaries, and star identifications. In Greek mythology, Corvus, the Crow or Raven, represents Apollo's sacred bird. The four bright stars that make up the main figure of the constellation form an asterism known as the "Sail". The Sail is also known as "Spica's Spanker" because two of the stars, Gamma Corvi and Delta Corvi, point to the bright star Spica in Virgo. A spanker is a type of sail. Alpha Corvi, Alchiba, is the fifth brightest star in the constellation, shining at magnitude 4. It is a spectral-type F dwarf that is located 48 light years away. Beta Corvi is Kraz, a spectral-type G star that is located 140 light-years distant and that shines at magnitude 2.63. Gienah, Gamma Corvi, a spectral-type B8 star is the brightest star in the constellation shining at magnitude 2.54. It is located 165 light-years away. Gienah means "the right wing of the crow" in Arabic. Delta Corvi, Algorab, is a blue-white spectral-type-B magnitude-2.9 star that is located 88 light-years distant. It is a double that is comprised of a magnitude 2.9 primary and a magnitude 9 secondary companion. Algorab means the "raven" or "crow" in Arabic. Epsilon Corvi is Minkar, a spectral-class K star that shines at magnitude 2.99. It is located 300 light years away. Minkar means the "nostril of the crow" in Arabic. Corvus is located far from the plane of the Milky Way so it does not contain any notable nebulae or star clusters. It is home to the Antennae galaxies, NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, a remarkable pair of interacting galaxies with long tidal tails. Corvus was cataloged by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century C.E. (Common Era). It is the 70th largest of today's 88 modern constellations, covering 184 square degrees of sky. North is to the top in the above image.
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