1.4 KiB
| name | created_by | created_date | updated_by | updated_date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ara | skybber | 2021-06-01 20:13:42.313212 | skybber | 2023-12-20 09:12:13.745923 |
A small but relatively prominent southern hemisphere constellation, not visible from our location, lies in the Milky Way south of the Scorpius constellation, between the star θ Scorpii on one side and α Triangulum Australis on the other. It is also indicated by the two brightest stars of Centaurus, Hadar, and Rigil Centaurus. The Altar constellation has a distinct shape, resembling a chair or throne with its outlines in the sky. It can be easily located in the Milky Way south of Scorpius, but visibility requires an observation point with at least a 65th parallel southern declination. The constellation is composed of several stars, including the brightest star β Arae with an apparent magnitude of 2.85, an orange giant located 600 light-years away. Other notable stars in Altar include α Arae with a magnitude of 2.95, γ Arae with a magnitude of 3.34, ζ Arae with a magnitude of 3.13, δ Arae with a magnitude of 3.62, θ Arae with a magnitude of 3.66, and η Arae with a magnitude of 3.76. Three of them—β, ζ, η—are orange in color. Altar contains several interesting deep-sky objects, with dominant globular clusters such as NGC 6352, NGC 6362, and NGC 6397, as well as the open star cluster NGC 6208, which has a magnitude of 7.
