Sextans Constellation | Constellations In The Southern Hemisphere
SEXTANS CONSTELLATION – In this topic, we are going to know and learn about the southern constellation Sextans, the Sextant.
It is a constellation in the southern sky and represents the astronomical sextant.
Sextans was created by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. It was originally named Sextans Uraniae after the instrument he had used to measure star positions until it was destroyed in a fire at his observatory in 1679.
It houses the Spindle Galaxy the spiral galaxies NGC 3166 and NGC 3169, and the irregular galaxies Sextans A and Sextans B, as well as the most distant known galaxy cluster, CL J1001+0220, and the Cosmos Redshift 7 galaxy.
It is the 47th of the largest constellations and occupies an area of about 314 square degrees. It lies in SQ2, the second quadrant of the southern hemisphere.
Sextans belongs to the Hercules family, along with Aquila, Ara, Centaurus, Corona Australis, Corvus, Crater, Crux, Cygnus, Hercules, Hydra, Lupus, Lyra, Ophiuchus, Sagitta, Scutum, Serpens, Triangulum Australe and Vulpecula.
Stars
Among the stars include:
- 24 Sextantis
- Alpha Sextantis
- BD-08°2823
- Beta Sextantis
- Bibhā
- Delta Sextantis
- Epsilon Sextantis
- Gamma Sextantis
- HD 86081
- HD 92788
- LHS 292
- WASP-43
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