Pisces Austrinus

Pisces Austrinus, The Southern Fish, is a faint constellation beneath Aquarius and west of Cetus, the Whale. It is so far south that it cannot be seen by northern states and even from the southern U.S., it requires a clear sky and good seeing, except for its one bright star: Fomalhaut. Because of this, I at first had decided not to include it in my project but changed my mind in the fall of 2011. This is why you will see the constellation name out of position on the constellation web page that leads to this one. The Southern Fish boasts only five 4th magnitude stars and only one of these is named: Fomalhaut. This star is a first magnitude object and is therefor one of the 20 brightest in the entire sky. Fomalhaut is a type A main sequence star about 25 light years from Earth, twice as big as our sun, and about 18 times as luminous. Fomalhaut is famous for being the first star possessing a planet that has actually been seen optically. The planet was photographed by the Hubble space telescope on November 13, 2008, and it lies just inside a ring of debris which orbits the star.