Diagram caption: The constellation Circinus with its brighter stars and surrounding constellations. Circinus is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Lupus, Centaurus, Musca, Apus, Triangulum Australe and Norma. Circinus is a relatively small constellation with few bright stars.

Circinus is a southern constellation and is thus the whole constellation is visible from the whole southern hemisphere at some point in the year. The whole constellation can also be seen from some equatorial regions of the northern hemisphere with parts of the constellation visible from the remaining equatorial regions and some northern hemisphere temperate locations. The constellation is circumpolar for all antarctic and some southern hemisphere temperate regions. Circinus is best viewed in the evening in the northern hemisphere summer and southern hemisphere winter.

The open cluster NGC 5823 lies in Circinus and is marked here with a yellow circle.

The y-axis of this diagram is in degrees of declination with north as up and the x-axis is in hours of right ascension with east to the left. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.

Diagram credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope. Credit Link

Diagram translation status: Not yet approved by a reviewer
Related glossary terms: Apparent Magnitude , Circumpolar Stars , Declination , Right Ascension (RA) , الإحداثيات السماوية , مجموعة نجمية او حشد نجمى
Categories: Naked Eye Astronomy

Diagram license: Creative Commons نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons نَسب المُصنَّف 4.0 دولي (CC BY 4.0) icons