Diagram caption: The constellation Antlia along with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Antlia is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Hydra, Pyxis, Vela and Centaurus.

Antlia is a southern constellation that is visible at some point in the year from the whole southern hemisphere as well as equatorial and some temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. The constellation is best viewed in the evenings in the northern hemisphere spring and southern hemisphere autumn.

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 IAU/Sky & Telescope. Credit Link

Related glossary terms: Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Constellation , Declination , Right Ascension (RA)
Categories: Naked Eye Astronomy

Diagram license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons