Constellation, Toucan
Tucana
A toucan, the big-billed bird of South America, placed in the southern sky by Dutch navigators. It holds the Small Magellanic Cloud and the great star cluster 47 Tucanae.
From New York the constellation Tucana never rises above the horizon: it belongs to the other hemisphere’s sky.
From New York the constellation Tucana never rises above the horizon: it belongs to the other hemisphere’s sky.
In the 3D sky
The sky over New York turned towards Tucana. Drag to look around.
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Evening visibility over the year
Height of the constellation’s centre above the horizon at 10 pm local time on the 15th of each month, from New York. Above about 30° it is well placed.
Name and history
Tucana is one of the twelve southern figures created from the observations of the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Petrus Plancius named it Toucan on his globe of 1598, and Johann Bayer did the same in 1603. De Houtman’s own catalogue of 1603, however, calls it ‘the Indian magpie, named Lang in the Indies’. He meant the Oriental pied hornbill, a big-billed bird of the East Indies. Ian Ridpath suggests the toucan idea may have come from Keyser, who had been to South America. Some early globes drew a hornbill, but the toucan won out. There is no myth here.
In 2024 the IAU named the brightest star, on the tip of the beak, Lang-Exster, joining the local bird name Lang with the Dutch word for magpie. Tucana holds the Small Magellanic Cloud, a small companion galaxy of the Milky Way, and the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Lacaille moved both from Hydrus into Tucana in the 1750s and was the first to note that 47 Tucanae is not a single star.
Sources: Ian Ridpath, Star Tales: Tucana
Brightest stars
| Star | Designation | Magnitude | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lang-Exster | α Tuc | 2.87 | 200 light-years |
| γ Tuc | γ Tuc | 3.99 | 75 light-years |
| ζ Tuc | ζ Tuc | 4.23 | 28 light-years |
| κ Tuc | κ Tuc | 4.25 | 68 light-years |
| β1 Tuc | β1 Tuc | 4.36 | 135 light-years |
| ε Tuc | ε Tuc | 4.49 | 373 light-years |
| δ Tuc | δ Tuc | 4.51 | 251 light-years |
| β2 Tuc | β2 Tuc | 4.53 | 169 light-years |
| ν Tuc | ν Tuc | 4.91 | 290 light-years |
| η Tuc | η Tuc | 5.00 | 155 light-years |
Facts
| Area | about 295 square degrees (48 of 88) |
|---|---|
| IAU abbreviation | Tuc |
| Sky | Southern sky |
| Origin | First shown as Toucan on a celestial globe by Petrus Plancius in 1598, from observations by Keyser and de Houtman |
| Stars brighter than magnitude 5 | 10 |
| Centre (J2000) | 23.7 h, -64° |
Deep-sky objects
Galaxies, clusters and nebulae brighter than magnitude 9, from the OpenNGC catalogue. Most need binoculars or a telescope and a dark sky.
| Object | Type | Magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| NGC0292 · Small Magellanic Cloud | Galaxy | 2.3 |
| NGC0104 · 47 Tuc Cluster | Globular cluster | 4.1 |
| NGC0362 | Globular cluster | 6.6 |
Boundaries: International Astronomical Union, via Astronomy Engine. Areas are computed from the boundaries by sampling (within about one percent). Names and lines: Stellarium. Stars: HYG Database. Deep-sky objects: OpenNGC. Calculated with Astronomy Engine, an open-source library verified against the US Naval Observatory and NASA JPL. Data sources
How to use this page
Choose your place and a night at the top. The answer and the 3D view show where the constellation is, when it is highest and whether it rises at all from where you are. The chart shows its stars and lines, and the tables list its brightest stars and the deep-sky objects inside it.
Frequently asked questions
When is a constellation best seen?
When it is highest in a dark sky, which the page gives for the night you pick. Each constellation is best placed in a particular season, because the stars rise about four minutes earlier every night.
Why can I not see a constellation from my place?
Constellations far south of the celestial equator never rise from northern places, and those far north never rise from southern ones. The page says when this is the case.
What are the constellation boundaries?
The International Astronomical Union divides the sky into 88 areas with official boundaries. The stick figures are only a drawing aid, the boundaries say which constellation a point in the sky belongs to.
Related guides
- How to learn the constellationsStart with one bright pattern you cannot miss, use it as a signpost to its neighbours, and come back a month later: the sky will have turned, and you will know a little more of it.
- Altitude and azimuth: finding things in the skyTwo angles tell you exactly where to look: which direction, and how high.
- Light pollution and dark skies: the Bortle scaleFrom a city centre you can count a few dozen stars. From a truly dark site you can count a few thousand, with the Milky Way bright enough to cast a shadow. The Bortle scale puts a number on the difference.
- Binoculars for stargazing: what to buy and what to look atA pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars shows the craters of the Moon, the moons of Jupiter, dozens of star clusters and the Andromeda Galaxy, for a fraction of the cost of a telescope.