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Stars and Sticks| Abbreviation | Ind |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Indian |
| Pronunciation Guide is based on “Pronouncing Astronomical Names,” published in 1943 by the American Astronomical Society. | IN-dus |
| Genitive The genitive is the Latin possessive form used in star names. For example, Alpha Orionis means “the Alpha of Orion.” | IN-dye |
| Best Month | September |
| Visibility | Southern |
| Origin | ExplorationCreated by 16th-century Dutch navigators (Keyser & de Houtman) to fill the blank spaces of the southern sky during their voyages to the East Indies. |
| Author | Keyser & de HoutmanDutch explorers whose southern star observations during the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies provided the data for 12 new constellations. |
| Type | constellation |
| Difficulty | Challenging |
| Description | The Indian was created by Dutch navigators in the 1590s to represent the indigenous peoples encountered during their exploratory voyages to the East Indies and the Americas. The constellation has no mythological tradition and sits in an unremarkable region of the southern sky. It contains Epsilon Indi — one of the nearest stars to the Sun at just 11.8 light-years — a K-type orange dwarf with two confirmed brown dwarf companions, making it an important system in the search for substellar objects near our solar neighborhood and a significant target for future exoplanet research. |
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Images: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/E. Slawik · IAU and Sky & Telescope · Stellarium — Full credits →