Crux Cru
Crux is one of the 88 constellations, covering 69 square degrees of the sky (the smallest). It is highest at midnight in March and best in the evening sky in April and May.
8 of its best-known objects have a page of their own here.
Facts
| Abbreviation | Cru |
|---|---|
| Size | 69 square degrees (the smallest of the 88; the full Moon covers about 0.2) |
| Middle (J2000) | 12h 26m, −60° |
| Highest at midnight | March (in the evening, around 8–10 pm: April and May) |
| How high | From India (about 20° N) its middle climbs to about 10° above the horizon; from 50° N it never rises. |
| Pages here | 8 objects |
Nebulae
2Star clusters
2Stars
4Brightest NGC and IC objects
OpenNGC| Object | Type | Magnitude | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| NGC 4609 (Coalsack Cluster) | Open star cluster | 6.9 | 5.4′ |
| H05 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 7.1 | 6′ |
| NGC 4349 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 7.4 | 6.3′ |
| NGC 4103 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 7.4 | 7.8′ |
| NGC 4439 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 8.4 | 4.5′ |
| NGC 4052 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 8.8 | 5.1′ |
| NGC 4337 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 8.9 | 6.6′ |
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