Mythology:
Pavo, the Peacock, was first introduced by Plancius after it was documented by Dutch explorers, de Houtman and Keyzer during their exploration of the southern hemisphere. It was likely named after the Javan green peacock of the East Indies. It can be found in the southern skies close to the other avian constellations, Grus (The Crane) and Tucana (The Tucan)
The Greeks also recorded mythology, however. The peacock was said to be Hera’s (Zeus’ wife) favourite bird, and that her chariot was drawn through the air by a flock of peacocks, although at this time their tails were plain, lacking the beautiful patterns we know today.
Zeus was well renowned for his relations with mortal women and began courting a maiden named Io. Hera became suspicious and sought the services of the giant, Argos, to watch over her. Argos had 100 eyes and was, therefore, a great choice for a guard!
Zeus changed Io into a cow for her protection but Hera ordered Argos to tie the cow to an olive tree. Seeing this, Zeus sent his messenger, Hermes, to free her. Hermes disguised himself as a shepherd and spent the day telling Argo’s stories and playing his pipes. Eventually, the many-eyed giant fell asleep and Hermes killed him, freeing Io. To honour Argos, Hera placed his eyes on the tail of the peacock.
Notable Stars:
Alpha Pavonis is also known as The Peacock Star and is one of the last stars to be officially named. This blue-white giant star was included by the UK’s Nautical Almanac Office as one of the bright stars required to be known by RAF pilots in case of instrumentation failure. However, at that time, the star had no official name and was thus labelled ‘Peacock’ after its parent constellation. They also christened Epsilon Carniae in Carina, as ‘Avior’.
The Peacock Star is situated 180 light-years from Earth and is a spectroscopic binary star, although the system cannot be resolved with amateur equipment. It is at least 6 times bigger and over 2000x brighter than our Sun.
Deep Sky Objects NGC 6752 / C 93 – The Starfish Cluster
The Pavo or Starfish Cluster is the 3rd brightest globular cluster in the night sky, after Omega Centauri
(Centaurus) and 47 Tucanae (Tucana), containing more than 100,000 stars.
It is situated 13,000 light-years from Earth and can be seen with the naked eye under dark skies close to Alpha Pavonis, Pavo’s brightest star.
The cluster contains many binary stars and is one of the oldest globulars known, estimated to be around 12 billion years old. It also has a large number of Blue Stragglers, young stars formed from collisions within the cluster.
