Sculptor Constellation: Facts & Myths

As kids, all of us used to look above to the sky at night so to view different types of constellations. Constellations is a kind of star formation that resembles some sort of imaginary patterns. People usually connect them to various mythical characters like animals, creatures and even gods.

Even as grown adults people like to watch these constellations at night from time to time. Astronomical events are also studied with the help of such constellations. You must have seen a gathering of stars in the sky at night which somewhat resembles a hunter. This constellation is called as Orion which is named after a mythological Greek hunter.

Other than this there are many constellations as well which are not normally visible to us but can be seen with the help of a scientific telescope. Heard about the constellation Sculptor? If not then let’s find out more about this constellations and know some of the amazing facts and stories related to it.

About the constellation Sculptor:

This gathering of stars can be found lying on the southern part of the sky, mainly south of the Cetus and Aquarius. It was founded by a famous French astronomer known by the name of Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. Earlier this constellation was named as Apparatus Sculptoris which was shortened and changed to just Sculptor.

Home to some of the fascinating objects present in the deep sky this constellation is slightly faint as there are no brighter stars to be seen. Sky objects like Sculptor and Cartwheel Galaxy are present in this assemblage. The IAU has adopted an abbreviation of just three letters, i.e., Scl for this constellation.

If you want to view the constellation Sculptor then it is quite visible from 50 degrees north of the southern latitude.

Get familiar with the stars in Sculptor:

You must be thinking as to what all stars are there in this constellations. So let us know about the different stars and their names which makes up this beautiful constellation:-

  • The brightest star in this constellation is known as Alpha Sculptoris. In terms of distance, it is situated at 780 lights years from our planet. According to its classification, this star is a giant one and blue-white in color.
  • Beta Sculptoris is known to be the 2nd brightest star in this particular constellation. Located 178 light years away from the Milky Way galaxy, this is a blue-white star which is somewhat subgiant in size.
  • It’s time to mention the name of the third brightest star of this constellation. Called by the name of Gamma Sculptoris, this star is orange in color and is large in size.
  • Other stars present in the constellation sculptor are namely Delta Sculptoris, Eta Sculptoris, Zeta Sculptoris, etc.

Some more information about Sculptor:

In case you are looking to find more information about this particular constellation then refer to the following mentioned points:-

  • To view this constellation in the sky the best month is from August to October. Out of all the constellations present in the sky at night, Sculptor ranks 36th according to its size.
  • As in the case of any other constellations that are often referred to different mythological characters, Sculptor does not fall into this category. It was named after a French astronomer and is depicted or illustrated as an engraved head that is lying with a chisel and mallet on a table.
  • There are no bright stars present in this constellation. There are close to only a few objects in Sculptor like the Cartwheel and the Sculptor Dwarf galaxy.

The next time you plan on viewing any of the constellations at night make sure to look out for the Sculptor and get to observe this magnificent gathering of stars.