Constellation, Sex
Sextans: the Sextant
Sextans covers 313 square degrees of sky, the 47th largest of the 88. Its brightest star is star HIP 49641. It is best placed in the evening sky in April.
Sextans at a glance
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| IAU abbreviation | Sex |
| Meaning | the Sextant |
| Pronounced | SEX-tunz |
| Genitive, used in star names | Sextantis (for example a Bayer name such as α Sextantis) |
| Area | 313 square degrees, number 47 of 88 by size |
| Stars to magnitude 6 in our catalogue | 17 |
| Brightest star | star HIP 49641, magnitude 4.5 |
| Best seen | Evenings in April, when it is highest at 9 pm |
| Declination range | -12° to 6° |
| Borders | Hydra, Leo, Crater |
Where on Earth you can see Sextans
Sextans spans declinations -12° to 6°. Every part of it rises above the horizon at some moment for observers between latitudes 84°S and 78°N. Some of it can be seen from every latitude. 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 | 70° |
| New York | 40.7°N | All of it rises | 47° |
| London | 51.5°N | All of it rises | 37° |
| Tromsø | 69.6°N | All of it rises | 18° |
| Tokyo | 35.7°N | All of it rises | 52° |
| Sydney | 33.9°S | All of it rises | 58° |
Sextans's named stars
None of the stars brighter than magnitude 6 in Sextans has a name approved by the IAU Working Group on Star Names.
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 Sextans'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