Constellations
Centaurus (Cen)
The Centaur
Also known as centaur.
6 looks for Centaurus
The constellation in a clear night sky over the hills: its lines draw themselves one on every beat, its real stars twinkle with the part of the song their colour answers, the Milky Way glows and a shooting star crosses on the big moments.
About Centaurus
- What it is
- One of the IAU's constellations: The Centaur
- IAU abbreviation
- Cen
- Its stars are named
- Centauri (as in "Alpha Centauri")
- Family
- Hercules family
- Where
- The southern sky: seen best from south of the equator
- Highest in the sky
- At about 9 pm in May
- Centre
- Right ascension 13h 24m, declination −49° 50′
- The figure
- 16 stars joined by 15 lines
- Brightest star
- Rigil Kentaurus, magnitude -0.29
Its stars
Brightest first. A smaller magnitude is a brighter star; the visualizer sizes and colours each one by these.
- Rigil Kentaurus (α1 Cen)mag -0.29
- Hadar (β Cen)mag 0.61
- Menkent (θ Cen)mag 2.06
- Muhlifain (γ Cen)mag 2.17
- ε Cenmag 2.30
- η Cenmag 2.31
- ζ Cenmag 2.55
- δ Cenmag 2.60
- ι Cenmag 2.75
- μ Cenmag 3.04
- Ke Kwan (κ Cen)mag 3.13
- ν Cenmag 3.41
- π Cenmag 3.89
- σ Cenmag 3.91
- ρ Cenmag 3.96
- ο1 Cenmag 5.13
Every star's place, brightness and colour is the Yale Bright Star Catalogue's; the figure is the IAU's, through d3-celestial (credited on the licences page). Constellations template · Every constellation