Ave-do-Paraíso
Bird of Paradise (Apodis)
Apus, the Bird of Paradise, is a faint southern constellation near the south celestial pole. Created by Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman in the late 16th century, it represents the exotic birds of paradise from New Guinea that captivated European explorers. The constellation contains no bright stars but lies in a region rich with faint galaxies.
📜 Mitologia
Apus was created from observations made during Dutch trading expeditions to the East Indies in 1595-1597. It was introduced by Petrus Plancius on a celestial globe in 1598 and later included in Johann Bayer's 'Uranometria' star atlas of 1603. The birds of paradise were so remarkable to Europeans that they were initially believed to have no feet and to float perpetually in the air - the genus name 'Paradisaea apoda' means 'legless bird of paradise.'
💡 Fatos curiosos
- ✦Apus is circumpolar from much of the Southern Hemisphere, never setting below the horizon
- ✦The constellation borders Octans, which contains the south celestial pole
- ✦NGC 6101 is a globular cluster in Apus, visible in small telescopes as a fuzzy patch