Centaurus Cen
Centaurus is one of the 88 constellations, covering 1,059 square degrees of the sky (9th largest). It is highest at midnight in April and best in the evening sky in May and June.
20 of its best-known objects have a page of their own here.
Facts
| Abbreviation | Cen |
|---|---|
| Size | 1,059 square degrees (9th largest of the 88; the full Moon covers about 0.2) |
| Middle (J2000) | 13h 06m, −46° |
| Highest at midnight | April (in the evening, around 8–10 pm: May and June) |
| How high | From India (about 20° N) its middle climbs to about 24° above the horizon; from 50° N it never rises. |
| Pages here | 20 objects |
Galaxies
1Nebulae
6Star clusters
2Black holes, pulsars and other extreme objects
1Planetary systems
1Stars
7Other objects
2Brightest NGC and IC objects
OpenNGC| Object | Type | Magnitude | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| IC 2944 (lam Cen Nebula) | Star cluster with nebula | 4.5 | 7.2′ |
| NGC 3766 (Pearl Cluster) | Open star cluster | 5.3 | 6.9′ |
| NGC 5138 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 5.3 | 4.2′ |
| NGC 5139 (Omega Centauri) | Globular star cluster | 5.3 | 27′ |
| NGC 5662 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 5.5 | 8.1′ |
| NGC 5460 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 5.6 | 13.2′ |
| NGC 5281 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 5.9 | 6.9′ |
| NGC 5316 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 6 | 9.9′ |
| NGC 5617 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 6.3 | 5.1′ |
| NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) (on the map) | Galaxy | 7.2 | 25.9′ |
| NGC 3680 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 7.6 | 5.7′ |
| NGC 3918 (Blue Planetary) | Planetary nebula | 8.1 | 0.3′ |
Smaller magnitudes are brighter; the faintest stars the eye sees are about 6. The full Moon is about 31′ across.
Data: IAU constellation boundaries (Roman 1987) · OpenNGC (Mattia Verga, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Data sources & credits