Constellation Dorado (Swordfish)

Properties

The constellation is southeast of the bright star Canopus in the constellation Carina. The most striking feature is the Large Magellanic Cloud in the south of the constellation. This is the larger of the two companion systems in our galaxy. The Small Magellanic Cloud is located around 20 degrees further west in the constellation of Tucana. The constellation covers an area of 179 square degrees in the sky and culminates around midnight on December 7th, but is not visible from Europe. ^{[9, 15]}

Data for constellation Dorado ^[150]
IAU Name	Dorado
IAU Genitive	Doradus
IAU Abbr.	Dor
English Name	Swordfish
Culmination at local midnight	8 December
Season (Latitude +46.8°)	[Not visible]
Right Ascension (J2000.0)	03^h 53^m 17^s … 06^h 35^m 45^s
Declination (J2000.0)	-70° 06' 15" … -48° 40' 12"
Area	179 deg²
Neighbours (N↻)	Cae, Hor, Ret, Hyi, Men, Vol, Pic

Deep-Sky Object Descriptions

Tarantula Nebula
NGC 2070

Catalogues

History

The constellation was first listed in 1603 by Johann Bayer in his Uranometria. It represents either a goldfish or a swordfish. ^[7]