- One of the 12 constellations introduced at the end of the 16th century by the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman after their pioneer observations of the southern skies. Grus represents a long-necked wading bird, the crane. Possibly they had in mind the sarus crane of India and southeast Asia, which is the largest species of crane, standing nearly 6ft tall.
- Castor (star) (Wikipedia)
Castor is the second-brightest object in the zodiac constellation of Gemini. It has the Bayer designation α Geminorum, which is Latinised to Alpha Geminorum and abbreviated Alpha Gem or α Gem. With an apparent visual magnitude of 1.58, it is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Castor appears singular to the naked eye, but it is actually a sextuple star system organized into three binary pairs. Although it is the ‘α’ (alpha) member of the constellation, it is fainter than ‘β’ (beta) Geminorum, Pollux.