2022 William Hershel: 02 Southern Constellation of Grus – Crane £2 BU

William Herschel’s legacy and popularity only increased over the years after the many discoveries he made about the solar system. In the British Antarctic Territory the UK Antarctic Place Name Committee named Herschel Heights after the famous astronomer, with Enceladus Nunataks and Mimas peak also being named after the two satellites of Saturn, discovered by Herschel. To mark the bicentenary of Herschel’s death we are releasing a series of five coins each showing a constellation from the “Bayer Family”. This family of constellations are circumpolar which means that they are always fully visible from the British Antarctic Territory. Grus constellation lies in the southern sky and its name means “the crane” in Latin. Grus contains three stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 and one star located within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years) of Earth. Grus was one of the 12 constellations created by Dutch explorers in the late 16th century. In Greek Mythology the Grus was considered a sacred bird to the god Hermes.