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Tucana
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Ursa major constellation illustration art. (Big Dipper) stars, space, night sky)
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Latin:
“Toucan”
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Tucana

astronomy
Written by
Erik Gregersen
Erik Gregersen is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. Before joining Britannica in 2007, he worked at the University of Chicago Press on the...
Erik Gregersen
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Tucana, constellation in the southern sky at about 0 hour right ascension and 60° south in declination. Its brightest star is Alpha Tucanae, with a magnitude of 2.9. This constellation contains the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite of the Milky Way Galaxy and one of the nearest galaxies to Earth at a distance of 190,000 light-years, as well as 47 Tucanae, the second brightest globular cluster after Omega Centauri. Tucana was invented by Pieter Dircksz Keyser, a navigator who joined the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies in 1595 and who added 12 new constellations in the southern skies. This constellation represents the toucan, a large-billed tropical American bird.

Erik Gregersen