Constellation Chart

The Pair of Compasses

Circinus, The Compass, is a Southern Hemisphere constellation introduced by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the mid-eighteenth century. Only seven Bayer stars are brighter than sixth magnitude. Though it lies on the main belt of the Milky Way, this is an unremarkable region of the southern sky, most notable for the fact that it lies close to the famous and bright Alpha Centauri.

Myth

Nicolas Louis de Lacaille was born in 1713 in Rumigny, France. By 1739 he taught mathematics at Mazarin College in Paris. In 1750, he traveled to the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, and by 1754 had named 14 constellations (including this one), made important measurements of the moon, Venus, and Mars, and cataloged almost 10,000 stars. On his return to Paris he attempted to compile his data by himself, a process that hastened his death in 1762. His Coelum Australe Stelliferum (Southern Sky Star Catalog) appeared the following year.

Galaxies In Circinus

ESO 97-G13

Powerful forces are at play in the nearby Circinus Galaxy. Hot gas, colored pink, is being ejected out of the spiral galaxy from the central region. Much of Circinus' tumultuous gas, however, is concentrated in two rings. The outer ring, located about 700 light-years from the center, appears mostly red and is home to tremendous bursts of star formation. A previously unseen inner ring, inside the green disk above, is visible only 130 light years from the center on this recently released, representative color image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. At the very center is an active galactic nucleus, where matter glows brightly before likely spiraling into a massive black hole. Although only 15 million light years distant, the Circinus Galaxy went unnoticed until 25 years ago because it is so obscured by material in the plane of our own Galaxy. The galaxy can be seen with a small telescope, however, in the constellation of Circinus.

Open Cluster In Circinus

NGC 5823

NGC 5823 is an open cluster in the Circinus Constellation

NGC5288

NGC 5288 is an open cluster in the Circinus Constellation

NGC5715

NGC 5715 is an open cluster in the Circinus Constellation

Planetary Nebula In Circinus

NGC5315