Pronunciation:
(SKULP-ter)Abbreviation:
SclGenitive:
SculptorisRight Ascension:
24 hoursDeclination:
-30 degreesArea in Square Degrees:
475Crosses Meridian:
9 PM, November 10Visible Between Latitudes:
50 and -90 degreesThe constellation Sculptor, the sculptor's workshop, is located in the southern hemisphere of the sky. It is completely visible at latitudes south of 50 degrees from August through October. It is a medium-sized constellation, covering 475 square degrees of the sky. This ranks it 36 in size among the 88 constellations in the night sky. It is bordered by Aquarius and Cetus to the north, Fornax to the east, Phoenix to the south, Grus to the southwest, and Piscis Austrinus to the west.
There is no mythology associated with Sculptor. It is one of the southern constellations named by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille during his stay at the Cape of Good Hope between 1751 and 1752. Lacaille originally named it Apparatus Sculptoris, which means “the sculptor’s studio.” It was depicted as a carved head lying on a table with a sculptor’s mallet and chisels. The constellation’s name was later shortened to Sculptor at the suggestion of astronomer John Herschel.
Beta Sculptoris
Gamma Sculptoris
Delta Sculptoris
Eta Sculptoris
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Blue-White Subgiant Star
Orange Giant Star
Triple Star System
Red Giant Star
4.38
4.41
4.59
4.80
Sculptor is a faint constellation with no stars brighter than magnitude 4. The brightest star is Alpha Sculptoris with a visual magnitude of only 4.3. This is a blue-white giant star located 780 light years from Earth. The second brightest star is Beta Sculptoris with a magnitude of 4.38. It is a blue-white subgiant star approximately 178 light years distant. The third brightest star is Gamma Sculptoris with a magnitude of 4.41. It is an orange giant star that lies approximately 179 light years from our solar system.
Sculptor contains no Messier objects. It does contain a few interesting deep-sky objects including the Sculptor Group, a small group of galaxies that contains 13 individual members. The Sculptor Dwarf is an irregular galaxy about 290,000 light years away. NGC 253 is a barred spiral galaxy also known as the Sculptor Galaxy. NGC 300 is a spiral galaxy 94,000 light years in diameter, only slightly smaller than the Milky Way. NGC 7793 is a spiral galaxy located about 12.7 million light years from Earth. NGC 613 is a barred spiral galaxy located 67 million light years away. The deep-sky objects in Sculptor are extremely faint and can only be seen in large telescopes.
© European Southern Observatory / CC BY 4.0
© European Southern Observatory / CC BY 4.0
© European Southern Observatory / CC BY 4.0
© Ngc1535 / CC BY 4.0