Mu-1

Its story

Mu-1 Gruis shines with a golden tone in the long neck of the Crane, about 275 light-years from the Sun. It is a yellow G-type giant that has already moved beyond core hydrogen fusion and swollen until it gleams several dozen times brighter than our star. Together with its companion Mu-2 it forms a visual pair that early southern navigators used as a quiet pointer toward the south celestial pole — still today a pleasure for anyone scanning the sky with binoculars on a dark night.