Grus is a southern constellation about 15 degrees south of the first magnitude star Fomalhaut. Grus occupies a rather sparse region of the sky, and can best be seen by observers in the Southern Hemisphere.
History and Mythology
Grus was mapped by the astronomer Bayer in 1603. The ancient Egyptians considered the crane as the symbol for a star-watcher. The Arabs mapped this area as part of Piscis Austrinus, the southern fish, which is just north of Grus.
Notable Objects
There is only one named star in the constellation. Alnair, "the bright one", marks the crane's body. Alnair is blue-white, belonging to the spectral class B5. It is a 2nd magnitude star about 100 light-years from Earth.
There are no prominent star clusters or nebulae in Grus. There are about two dozen galaxies which can be seen in a modest telescope. NGC 7213 is a 10th magnitude spiral galaxy. It is seen face-on with a small bright nucleus, but very faint spiral arms. NGC 7552, 7582, 7590, and 7599 form a small, compact grouping of galaxies known as the "Grus Quartet".