Beta Octantis is the second brightest star in the constellation.

Polaris Australis (Sigma Octantis), the southern pole star, is a magnitude 5.4 star just over 1 degree away from the true south celestial pole. Its relative faintness means that it is not practical for navigation.

BQ Octantis is a fainter, magnitude 6.82 star located much closer to the South Pole (at less than a degree) than Sigma.

In addition to having the current southern pole star of Earth, Octans also contains the southern pole star of the planet Saturn, which is the magnitude 4.3 Delta Octantis.

The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa in 2003 reported that observations of the Mira variable stars R and T Octantis were urgently needed.

At least four star systems are known to have planets. Mu<sup>2</sup> Octantis is a binary star system, the brighter component of which has a planet. Nu Octantis A also has a planet orbiting. HD 142022 is a binary system, a component of which is a sunlike star with a massive planet with an orbital period of 1928 ± 46 days. HD 212301 is a yellow-white main sequence star with a hot jupiter that completes an orbit every 2.2 days.

Deep-sky objects

thumb|right|[[NGC 7098]]

NGC 2573 (also known as Polarissima Australis) is a faint barred spiral galaxy that happens to be the closest NGC object to the south celestial pole. NGC 7095 and NGC 7098 are two barred spiral galaxies that are 115 million and 95 million light-years distant from Earth respectively. The sparse open cluster Collinder 411 is also located in the constellation.

Namesakes

was a stores ship used by the United States Navy during World War II.

See also

  • Octans (Chinese astronomy)

Notes

References

;Citations

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;References

  • The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Octans
  • The clickable Octans
  • Starry Night Photography : Octans
  • Star Tales – Octans