Crater Constellation: The Ultimate Guide

The constellation Crater is associated with a story from Greek mythology. A crow serving the god Apollo is sent to fetch water from a creek but delays its journey as it finds some figs and waits a long time to mature before eating them.

Finally, he takes the water from a crater and puts a hydra inside after eating. He had planned to blame him for his delay by saying that every time the crater was filled, it drank the water containing teeth.

According to the myth, Apollo realized the deception and angrily threw the crow, the cup, and the serpent into the sky. In this way, the three were captured in the stars in the form of constellations as a warning not to contradict the gods.

During the second century, the astronomer Ptolemy wrote the Almagest, the complete catalog known of the stars and constellations of the sky. In this plasma in detail, the position and the stars currently occupy the constellation Crater's place.

Because of this, this constellation is considered one of the 48 oldest known original constellations.

In 1922 the International Astronomical Association added the constellation Crater to the 88 official night sky constellations. Since then, it has not undergone significant modifications in its boundaries.

Crater currently ranks 53rd in size among the 88 constellations of the night sky, covering an area of 282 square degrees in the night sky.

Crater resides in the second quadrant of the Southern Hemisphere (SQ2) between latitudes 65° N and 90° S, which means we can see the constellation in the night sky from all countries world.

Crater is visible in America, Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Antarctica.

Crater is not visible in regions above 65° N, such as northern Canada, northern Alaska, northern Siberia, and everything within the Arctic Circle.

Crater is a constellation located mainly at the south pole; however, February is the best month to visualize it.

The constellation Crater is visible during spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern hemisphere.

The constellation Crater is very faint, but it lies in the middle of two vast and vital constellations, Hydra and Virgo.

The easiest way to locate the crater constellation is by drawing an imaginary straight line from the constellation Virgo to the constellation Hydra. The constellation Crater is located right in the middle of the two.

The constellations bordering Crater are Leo, Sextant, Hydra, Corvus and Virgo.

In addition, Crater belongs to the family of constellations Hercules; these include Aquila, Ara, Centaurus, Corona Australis, Corvus, Crux, Cygnus, Hercules, Hydra, Lupus, Lyra, Ophiuchus, Sagitta, Scutum, Sextans, Serpens, Triangulum Australe, and Vulpecula.

The constellation Crater officially contains 33 stars, of which 8 form the central figure of the constellation; these are Labrum, Alkes, Gamma Crateris, Al Sharas, Theta Crateris, Zeta Crateris, Epsilon Crateris, and Eta Crateris.

With an apparent magnitude of +3.56, Labrum is the brightest in the constellation Crater. It is 195 light-years away from the Solar System.

It consists of an orange giant star of spectral type K0III with a surface temperature of 4600 K. Its radius is 21 times larger than the solar radius, its luminosity being 175 times greater than that of the Sun.

Alkes is the second brightest star in the constellation Crater, with an apparent magnitude of +4.08. It is 174 light-years away from the Solar System.

It is an orange giant of spectral type K1III with a surface temperature of 4725 K. It is 80 times more luminous than the Sun. It has an estimated mass of 2.5 solar masses.

The crater is also home to several deep-sky objects. Deep-sky objects often mean star clusters, nebulae (interstellar cloud bodies), or galaxies.

In the case of Crater, because it is a small constellation, it only has star clusters and galaxies; some of them are:

It is a low-surface brightness dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located approximately 380,000 meters from our solar system. It has a radius of 1100 pcs, making it the fourth-largest satellite in the Milky Way.

With an apparent magnitude of +10.8, NGC 3511 is an intermediate spiral galaxy located in the constellation Crater.

It is at a distance of about 45 million light-years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 3511 is about 70,000 light-years across.

Within the limits of the constellation Crater occurs the meteor shower called Eta Craterids, which takes place between January 11 and 22 of each year, reaching its point of maximum exposure around January 16.

• Crater is a constellation located primarily in the southern hemisphere. The constellation's name comes from the Greek "Krater," which was a cup-shaped vessel that served to dilute the vine.
• This is one of the 48 constellations named in the Almagest, a catalog of stars written by astronomer Ptolemy during the second century.
• The Crater constellation lies between 65° N and 90° S. The best month to observe the counting is February.
• The easiest way to locate the crater constellation is by drawing an imaginary straight line from the constellation Virgo to the constellation Hydra. The constellation Crater is located right in the middle of the two.
• The brightest star in the constellation Crater is Labrum (δ Crateris /δ Crt /12 Crt), with an apparent magnitude of +3.56.
• The most notable deep-sky body of the crater constellation is the Dwarf Galaxy Crater 2.
• The constellation Crater has an essential meteor shower called Eta Craterids between January 11 and 22.

1. https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/crater-constellation/
2. https://www.britannica.com/place/Crater-constellation
3. http://www.seasky.org/constellations/constellation-crater.html
4. https://www.universeguide.com/constellation/crater
5. https://theplanets.org/constellations/crater-constellation/