Columba Constellation | Constellations In The Southern Hemisphere

COLUMBA CONSTELLATION – In this topic, we are going to know and learn about the southern constellation Columba, the Dove.

It is one of the southern constellations in the sky. It means “the dove” in Latin and was originally called Columba Noachi, meaning “Noah’s dove.” It was named after the dove Noah sent to inform him that the Great Flood was receding.

According to Chapter 8 of the book of Genesis in the Bible, Noah sent two birds, the raven and the dove. He first sent the raven, which went to and fro until the waters have dried up from the earth.

He then sent the dove to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. In the first attempt, the dove found no place to set her foot and returned to him, indicating that the water is still from the face of the entire earth.

Noah waited for seven days and sent the dove again, which came back with a freshly plucked olive leaf, indicating that the waters had subsided from the earth.

It was created by Petrus Plancius from the stars located behind Argo Navis, the constellation of the Argonauts’ ship, which was later renamed to “Noah’s Ark” on a celestial globe of 1613.

It is home to the blue subgiant Phact and the runaway star Mu Columbae, as well as the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1808 and the globular cluster NGC 1851.

Columba is the 54th largest constellation in the night sky and occupies an area of about 270 square degrees. It lies in SQ1, the first quadrant of the southern hemisphere.

The constellation belongs to the Heavenly Waters family, along with Carina, Delphinus, Equuleus, Eridanus, Piscis Austrinus, Puppis, Pyxis, and Vela.

Stars

Among the stars include: