Volans
What is Volans?
Constellations· Southern summer–autumn · between Canopus and Crux. A flying fish that Dutch navigators saw leaping from tropical seas. Small stars below Carina trace the fish as it jumps from the water.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
Stars of the figure
| Star | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Beta Volantis | 3.8 |
| Gamma Volantis | 3.8 |
The 2 brightest of the 2 stars used in the figure (1 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.
Constellation basics
| Season | Jan–Mar evenings; never visible from London or New York |
|---|---|
| Brightest star | β Volantis, mag 3.8 |
| How to find | south of Carina, east of the Large Magellanic Cloud |
| Area rank | 76th of 88 |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Where one galaxy passed through another — the ring galaxy in Volans
About 300 million light-years away in the direction of Volans lies a galaxy shaped like a ring. It is called AM 0644-741. A blue ring 150,000 light-years across surrounds a yellow core, and the core sits off to one side rather than in the middle. The ring alone is wider than our whole Milky Way.
The shape comes from a collision. A smaller galaxy passed straight through the middle of this spiral, and a ripple spread outward like the ring from a stone dropped in a pond. Where the ripple passed, gas was squeezed together and a burst of new stars was born. The ring glows blue because of these young, hot stars.
The ring is still growing. Computer models suggest it will keep expanding for about another 300 million years and then begin to break apart. The ring we see today is a shape that lasts only a short part of a galaxy's long life.
The constellation in depth
Volans is one of twelve southern constellations that came from Dutch navigators' observations in the 1590s. It honours the flying fish they saw gliding over the water on the route to the East Indies. Bayer's atlas of 1603 drew it being chased by the neighbouring Dorado, so the two constellations form a single scene.
The brightest star, Beta Volantis, is an orange giant of magnitude 3.8. Gamma Volantis splits into two stars in a small telescope, a yellow star beside a white one, so the colours stand out against each other. In this direction also lies NGC 2442, a galaxy with one spiral arm bent like a hook.
On the sky the stars join into one fish, but their real distances differ. Beta is about 108 light-years away, Alpha about 125 and Gamma about 140, while Epsilon lies several hundred light-years off. The figure is a picture made by stars that happen to lie in the same direction as seen from Earth.
At declinations of −64° to −75° it cannot be seen from Europe or most of the United States. From Cape Town or Sydney it never sets and is best on January to March evenings; look south-east of the bright star Canopus and east of the Large Magellanic Cloud. In the Sky view, set Sydney on a February evening and the little fish appears east of the Cloud.
Frequently asked
- When can I see Volans?
- Volans is best seen in Jan–Mar evenings; never visible from London or New York.
- How do I find Volans?
- To find Volans, look for south of Carina, east of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
- What is the brightest star in Volans?
- The brightest star in Volans is Beta Volantis, at magnitude 3.8.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.