Volans as Piscis Volans (middle right) along with other constellations fromJohann Bayer’sUranometria
Volans is one of the 12 constellations that were introduced by the Dutch navigatorsPieter Dirkszoon Keyser andFrederick de Houtman in the late 16th century. It was first depicted onPetrus Plancius’ globe in 1598. Plancius called the constellationVliegendenvis (flying fish).[3]
In 1603,Johann Bayer included the constellation in his star atlasUranometria under the name Piscis Volans, the flying fish.[3]John Herschel proposed shrinking the name to one word in 1844, noting thatLacaille himself had abbreviated his constellations thus on occasion.[4] This was universally adopted.[3]
Volans represents a type of tropical fish that can jump out of the water and glide through the air on wings. In early celestial maps, the flying fish was often depicted as accompanying the shipArgo Navis, and being chased by the predatory fish represented by the adjoining constellationDorado.[3]
On 10 May 2023,TOI-715 b, the first exoplanet in the conservative habitable zone, about 1.55 times larger thanEarth, was discovered in Volans byTESS.
There are twodouble stars within the constellation which can be observed using a smalltelescope,Gamma Volantis andEpsilon Volantis, along with twogalaxies which may be more difficult to see clearly,NGC 2442 andNGC 2434. The magnitudes of the Gamma Volantis stars are 3.8 and 5.6, and of Epsilon Volantis 4.4 and 7.3.[5]
Volans has several deep-sky objects within its borders.
TheLindsay-Shapley ring, also categorized as AM0644-741, is aring galaxy located 300 million light-years from Earth. Named for its discoverers, the Lindsay-Shapley ring was found near theLarge Magellanic Cloud in 1960. Like theCartwheel Galaxy inSculptor, the unusual shape of this galaxy results from acollision many millions of years ago. The blue ring, 150,000 light-years in diameter, was formed when ashock wave from the collisioncreated a ring of hot blue stars; the yellow core is an amalgamation of the progenitors' cores.[7]NGC 2442, an intermediate-spiral galaxy, is also located in this constellation, with a distance of 50 million light-years from Earth.
Graham's Object, akaDas Rheingold orNibelungen Ring is a ring shaped galaxy at R.A. 6h 41.4m / Decl. -74° 19' (2000.0) in Volans[8][9]
^Cooper, Tim (2003). "Presidential address: Amateur Observations – Successes and Opportunities".Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.62:234–240.Bibcode:2003MNSSA..62..234C.
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