- Al Nair (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
AL NAIR (Alpha Gruis). Directly south of Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish, is the modern constellation Grus, the Crane. Unlike the bright ancient constellations, the “moderns” were invented between around 1600 and 1800 either to name the figures of the deep southern sky that could not be seen from northern classical lands or to fill in the blanks among the brighter northern groups.
- Alpha Gruis (Wikipedia)
Alpha Gruis is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Grus. It is officially named Alnair; Alpha Gruis is the star’s Bayer designation, which is Latinized from α Gruis and abbreviated α Gru. With an magnitude of 1.74, it is one of the brightest stars in the sky and one of the fifty-eight stars selected for celestial navigation. Alpha Gruis is a single, B-type main-sequence star located at a distance of 31 pc.
