Grus, The Crane, is a late Winter constellation in the Southern Hemisphere. A couple of pleasant optical binaries is all the constellation offers for binocularists.
Alpha Gruis is called Alnair, meaning ‘The Bright One’, which actually refers to the Fish's Tail, which shows that the star was once part of Piscis Austrinus. The star is two and a half fields of view southwest of Fomalhaut, or midway between alpha Pavonis and Fomalhaut. In the same FOV is delta1 and delta2, not a true binary but a nice optical with colour contrast, yellow and red.
Gamma Gruis is the head, or possibly the eye, of the Crane, ten degrees north-northwest from alpha Gruis. Just south of this view is mu, an optical binary of two yellow giants.
