Located in the southern sky, the constellation Indus was surveyed by Europeans in the 1590s. It was mapped on a globe by Pieter Platevoet by early 1598 and thus included in Bayer’s keynote, consolidated sky atlas of 1603. The Zenith of the constellation is over 25° south of the Tropic of Capricorn, which means that very few countries can see this.

	Applicable Information
Visibility In Pacific Northwest	July Can See The Top Visible
Best Times To View	July Can See The Top Visible
Right Ascension	20h 28m 40.6308s– 23h 27m 59.4799s
Declination	−44.9588585°-−74.4544678°
Area	294 square degrees
Main Stars	3
Brightest Object	The Persian (α Ind)
Meteor showers	None
Messier objects	None
Neighboring Constellations	Microscopium, Telescopium, Pavo, Octans, Tucana, Grus, Sagittarius

History

The constellation was created by Petrus Plancius using observations made by Dutch explorers Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas followed in Johann Bayer‘s Uranometria of 1603. Plancius portrayed the figure as a male with three arrows in one hand and one in the other, as a native, lacking quiver and bow.

It is among the 12 constellations introduced by Keyser and de Houtman, which first appeared on in 1598.

Stars

There are no stars in Indus that can be viewed from the solar system that are in the top 100 in brightness viewed, or apparent magnitude. This is because 2 of its stars rank of 3rd magnitude and 3 stars rank of 4th magnitude. 

Alpha Indi, the brightest star in the constellation, is an orange giant of magnitude 3.1, located some 101 light-years away from Earth. 

Epsilon Indi is one of the closest stars to Earth, is an orange dwarf of magnitude 4.7, meaning that the yellow dwarf Sun is slightly hotter and larger. The system has been discovered to contain a pair of binary brown dwarfs, and has long been a prime candidate in SETI studies. This star has the third-highest proper motion of all visible to the unaided eye.

Indus is home to one bright binary star, named Theta Indi, which is visible in amateur telescopes. It figures close to the hyponeuse of the right-angled triangle of Alpha, Beta and Delta, the three brightest stars of Indus.

T Indi is the only bright variable star in Indus, which is a deeply colored red giant with a period of 11 months.

In the constellation Indus, one can fine galaxies such as NGC 7090 and NGC 7049.

Make sure to check out other articles on the site, including a brief introduction to constellations, other constellation articles, and more!