Hobbies And Interests
History
In the late 1590s Pieter Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, two Dutch navigators, mapped new constellations as they traveled south. They named many of them after animals that had been recently discovered, like the chameleon, the water snake, the peacock, the toucan and the flying fish. Apus was named after the bird of paradise, which they had discovered in Papua New Guinea. The new constellations were published in German astronomer Johan Bayer's Uranometria in 1603. The name Apus, by the way, means footless, because it was believed that birds of paradise had no feet.
Best Months to See
Because of the way the earth moves through space, constellations are better seen at certain times of the year than at others. Apus is a winter constellation, visible between the latitudes +5 degrees and -90 degrees. The best months to see it are from June to September, with the best month being July. However, Apus is so far south that it's circumpolar. If one was at the South Pole one could see it clearly round. However, these are also the coldest months of winter in Antarctica and the continent might be inaccessible to tourists.
Stars of Apus
The brightest stars in Apus are rather coolish, orange K stars, about 3,700 to 5,200 degrees K. Alpha, the brightest, has a magnitude of 3.8 and is 411 light years from Earth. Gamma is actually brighter than beta, which should be the second brightest star; gamma's magnitude is 3.86 and beta's is 4.23. Delta is a double star made of two orange stars that are visible through binoculars. Kappa is another double star 1020 years from Earth.
Globular Cluster
The globular cluster NGC 6101 can also be seen in Apus, near the star gamma Apodis. A globular cluster is a spherical grouping of very old stars of a common origin. They are most often found near the center of a galaxy. NGC 6101 should be able to be seen through a 4.5 inch telescope during a dark night.