English name | Fly | ||||
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Major stars | alpha Muscae | magn. 2,9 | RA: 12h 37m 10.97s | Dec: -69° 08' 07.6" | |
beta Muscae | magn. 3,3 | RA: 12h 46m 16.91s | Dec: -68° 06' 29.4" | ||
Description | Small constellation to the south of Crux. It doesn't contain particularly remarkable objects, apart a pair of double stars: beta Muscae, separable with telescopes of at least 100 mm, and theta Muscae, visible with small instruments. | ||||
Mythology and stars | The constellation was drawn by the Dutch navigators Pieters Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederik de Houtman towards the end of the XVI century. At first it had the name of Apis, the bee. |