Corvus Makes Its Appearance on the Night Sky

Many of the constellations on the night sky have names associated to animals. Corvus, the Crow, is just one of them. It becomes visible in spring in the southern areas of the sky for people living in the mid-northern latitudes in the vicinity of the Leo constellation. It has a relatively small quadrilateral-like pattern formed of stars with moderate brightness, which can be generally used to identify the Spica star in the Virgo constellation. All you have to do is find the Corvus constellation, then extend the top side of the quadrilateral to the left. The blue bright star appearing at about three times the distance between the two top stars of Corvus is Spica.

The Crow was named after Apollo's unfaithful raven, which, according to Greek mythology, was sent with a cup after some water but never brought the water, preferring instead to stand in a fig tree. After a long time, Corvus returned to Apollo without the cup and with a water snake in its claws in sign of apology for the delay.

Apollo was not pleased and as punishment he presumably colored all crows in black. Furthermore, Apollo allegedly fixed Corvus, the Cup - symbolized by the Crater constellation - and the Snake - Hydra constellation - on the night sky and condemned it to everlasting thirst by doing so.

The Crater constellation, or the Cup, resembles some kind of goblet, although it is very hard to spot on the night sky especially taking into consideration that it is rather small and faint against the background of stars.

Also residing in the southern regions of the sky is the Crux constellation, or the Southern Cross, which is found exactly beneath the Corvus constellation when the latter reaches its highest position in the sky. This happens at about 9:30 p.m. local daylight time. Nevertheless, even when the Crow is in its highest position, the Crux constellation remains below the horizon for people in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere.