Corvus
What is Corvus?
Constellations· Spring evenings (N) · small quadrilateral SW of Spica. The crow: a crisp quadrilateral south-west of Spica in the spring sky. Punished by Apollo for dawdling on an errand, it shares one myth with neighbouring Crater and Hydra. The colliding Antennae Galaxies lie inside it. Look below Spica in the Sky view.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Corvus is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=con:Corvus — location and time set automatically, no login.
Stars of the figure
| Star | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Gienah | 2.6 |
| Kraz | 2.7 |
| Algorab | 2.9 |
| Minkar | 3.0 |
The 4 brightest of the 4 stars used in the figure (4 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.
Constellation basics
| Season | spring evenings (N) |
|---|---|
| Brightest star | Gienah (γ, 2.6) |
| How to find | the neat box below-right of Spica |
| Area rank | 88 |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Frequently asked
- When can I see Corvus?
- spring evenings (N).
- How do I find Corvus?
- the neat box below-right of Spica.
- What is the brightest star in Corvus?
- Gienah, magnitude 2.6.
- Where is Corvus in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
The Antennae — a preview of our own fate six billion years hence
The Antennae Galaxies near the southern boundary of Corvus are two spiral galaxies colliding 60 million light-years away. They began to collide about 600 million years ago and their two nuclei are now on the point of merging; stars flung out by the encounter stretch in two long streams like an insect's antennae, hence the name. The collision compresses the gas inside and sets off a burst of star formation, and Hubble images show more than a thousand newborn star clusters.
Over the next few hundred million years the two will merge into a single elliptical galaxy. Because the Milky Way and Andromeda are calculated to go through the same process in about 4.5 billion years, the Antennae are often cited as a window on our distant future. Stars are so far apart that they almost never strike one another; what collides is gas and gravity. This faint blur below the spring quadrilateral is the nearest galaxy collision in the sky.
The constellation in depth
Corvus is one of Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and the Babylonians already drew a bird here. In Greek myth Apollo sent the crow with a cup to fetch water, but it dawdled waiting for figs to ripen and blamed a water snake. The angry god placed crow, cup and snake in the sky together, with the bird forever kept from drinking.
The four stars Gienah, Kraz, Algorab and Minkar form a box nicknamed "the Sail". Delta Corvi, Algorab, is a double star that small telescopes split, and near the southern border lie the Antennae Galaxies NGC 4038/4039 — two galaxies mid-collision trailing long tidal tails, a Hubble favourite.
On April–June evenings find Spica in Virgo in the south, then look about 15 degrees to its lower right for the box of four 3rd-magnitude stars. The shape is distinct enough for city skies. In the Sky view, select Spica and shift your gaze to the south-west.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.