AntliaAntlia
Particulars:
General:
Antlia is thought to represent the air pump invented by
the English physicist Robert Boyle. This already gives a hint,
that this constellation does not belong to the old, (in the
north) long known ones. It belongs to the La Caille constellation
family and is located in the southern hemisphere (about DECL=-25
degrees and DECL=-40 degrees, RA=11h and RA=9h30m).
Antlia is a faint constellation - its brightest star, alpha
Ant (spectraltype K4III) shows a brightness of 4.25 mag.
Stars and other objects
The double zeta Ant is a wide pair of an A1 main
sequence star of 6.35 mag (zeta2) and an A9 subgiant of 5.93 mag
(zeta3). These two can easily be observed with binoculars. Small
scopes reveal another companion: another A1 main sequence star of
7.21 mag (zeta1).
The planetary nebula NGC3132 lies very close to the border
line to the constellation Vela, south of Antlia. It
is bright and large planetary nebula - it can be compared to the
famous Ring Nebula in Lyra, yet it is a full
magnitude brighter. When viewed with a telescope of average size
the nebula appears as a misty disk of elliptical shape; the
apparent size of this disk is even larger than the apparent size
of our largest planet, Jupiter.
In April 1997 a new member of the Local Group of galaxies was
found in this constellation. This spheroidal dwarf galaxy has
been discovered by astronomers of Cambridge. You can find it at
RA=10h 01.8m and DECL=-27deg 05'. It is located in a distance of
about 1150 kpc.
