Constellation, Cen
Centaurus: the Centaur
Centaurus covers 1,059 square degrees of sky, the 9th largest of the 88. Its brightest star is Rigil Kentaurus. It is best placed in the evening sky in May.
Show Centaurus in the live sky
Centaurus at a glance
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| IAU abbreviation | Cen |
| Meaning | the Centaur |
| Pronounced | sen-TOR-us |
| Genitive, used in star names | Centauri (for example a Bayer name such as α Centauri) |
| Area | 1,059 square degrees, number 9 of 88 by size |
| Stars to magnitude 6 in our catalogue | 174 |
| Brightest star | Rigil Kentaurus, magnitude -0.0 |
| Best seen | Evenings in May, when it is highest at 9 pm |
| Declination range | -65° to -30° |
| Borders | Hydra, Lupus, Crux, Vela, Circinus, Carina, Musca, Antlia, Libra |
Where on Earth you can see Centaurus
Centaurus spans declinations -65° to -30°. Every part of it rises above the horizon at some moment for observers between latitudes 90°S and 25°N. Some of it can be seen from latitudes 90°S to 60°N. South of 60°S none of it ever sets. This is geometry only: it ignores haze, hills and buildings near the horizon.
From six cities
| City | Latitude | Visibility | Middle at its highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pune | 18.5°N | All of it rises | 26° |
| New York | 40.7°N | Only part of it rises | 3° |
| London | 51.5°N | Only part of it rises | below the horizon |
| Tromsø | 69.6°N | Never rises | below the horizon |
| Tokyo | 35.7°N | Only part of it rises | 8° |
| Sydney | 33.9°S | All of it rises | 78° |
Centaurus's named stars
These stars in Centaurus have names approved by the IAU Working Group on Star Names. Magnitude is brightness: a lower number is brighter, and the faintest stars seen with the naked eye on a dark night are about magnitude 6.
| Star | Designation | Magnitude | Distance (light-years) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigil Kentaurus | α Centauri | -0.01 | 4.3 |
| Hadar | β Centauri | 0.61 | 390 |
| Toliman | α Centauri | 1.35 | 4.3 |
| Menkent | θ Centauri | 2.06 | 58.8 |
Distances are about, from the HYG database (Hipparcos parallax), and "not known" means the catalogue has no reliable parallax for that star.
How these facts were found
The name, meaning and boundaries are the IAU's. Area, borders and the latitude ranges are computed from those boundaries; the brightest star and the star count come from a magnitude-6 star catalogue; star names are matched to the catalogue by Hipparcos number and checked by position. The month is when Centaurus's middle crosses the north-south line of the sky at 9 pm local solar time. See How we know.
Sources
- IAU: The Constellations. Names, meanings, pronunciations and boundaries
- IAU Working Group on Star Names. The official names of stars
- astronomy-engine. The MIT licensed library that does the calculations, run on the page's build machine and in the app
- HYG database v4.4 (astronexus). Distances, spectral types and luminosities, licence CC BY-SA 4.0