- Southern celestial hemisphere (Wikipedia)
The southern celestial hemisphere, also called the Southern Sky, is the southern half of the celestial sphere; that is, it lies south of the celestial equator. This arbitrary sphere, on which seemingly fixed stars form constellations, appears to rotate westward around a polar axis due to Earth’s rotation.
- Gamma Hydrae (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
Skipping over obscure (at least in brightness) fourth magnitude Beta Hydrae (the southernmost of Hydra’s outlining stars), exact third magnitude Gamma Hydrae (3.00) comes in at number two, just beating out a host of slightly lesser stars (such as Nu, Zeta, Pi, and Epsilon).
- Gamma Hydrae (Wikipedia)
Gamma Hydrae (γ Hya, γ Hydrae) is a binary star in the equatorial constellation of Hydra. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 3.0, placing it second in brightness among the members of this generally faint constellation. Based upon parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission, this star is at a distance of around 133.8 light-years (41.0 parsecs) from Earth.
