Pavo
What is Pavo?
Constellations· Southern winter evenings · not visible from Korea · near the south pole. The peacock fanning its tail deep in the southern sky — a 1598 Dutch navigators' constellation that never rises from Korea. Its alpha star, Peacock, is a navigation star, and Delta Pavonis is one of the nearest Sun-like stars. Switch the Sky view location to a southern-hemisphere city.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Pavo is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=con:Pavo — location and time set automatically, no login.
Stars of the figure
| Star | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Peacock | 1.9 |
The 1 brightest of the 3 stars used in the figure (3 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.
Constellation basics
| Season | southern winter evenings · below the horizon from Korea |
|---|---|
| Brightest star | Peacock (α, 1.9) |
| How to find | far south of Sagittarius, toward the pole |
| Area rank | 88 |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Frequently asked
- When can I see Pavo?
- southern winter evenings · below the horizon from Korea.
- How do I find Pavo?
- far south of Sagittarius, toward the pole.
- What is the brightest star in Pavo?
- Peacock, magnitude 1.9.
- Where is Pavo in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
A galaxy that resembles our own — NGC 6744 in Pavo
Pavo holds NGC 6744, the spiral galaxy most often introduced as the one that most resembles the Milky Way. At 30 million light-years and 170,000 light-years across it is larger than ours, but with its central bar, several arms winding outward and a small satellite galaxy at its side, its structure is similar enough to serve as a stand-in for the Milky Way seen from outside. From the southern hemisphere binoculars show it as a faint smudge.
The same constellation holds NGC 6752, the third brightest globular cluster in the sky. At 13,000 light-years it is near enough for its stars to resolve well, and it is a specimen of a core-collapsed cluster, one whose stars have crowded into the centre. Pavo cannot be seen from Korea, but within it a portrait of our galaxy and a crush of several hundred thousand stars sit side by side.
The constellation in depth
Pavo is one of the twelve southern constellations Plancius created in 1598 from the observations of Keyser and de Houtman. It records the exotic animals Europeans first met in the East Indies, and was readily linked to the peacock of Hera in Greek myth — the bird whose tail carries the hundred eyes of Argus.
Its alpha star goes by the English name Peacock rather than a Greek letter: the name was coined in the 1930s so the star could appear in the Royal Air Force navigation almanac. Delta Pavonis, a Sun-like star 20 light-years away, is a frequent entry on lists of targets for the search for life. NGC 6752 is the third-brightest globular cluster in the sky, and Kappa Pavonis is a Cepheid variable.
Lying near declination −65°, it never rises anywhere in Korea. From Australia, New Zealand or South Africa it stands high in the south on June–September evenings. In the Sky view, change the location to Sydney and look south to find Peacock and its constellation.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.