The Constellation Circinus
Circinus is the fourth smallest constellation, squeezed into a narrow gap between the front feet of Centaurus and Triangulum Australe.
It represents a pair of compasses and together with its neighbor Norma – a set square – forms a pair of constellations which celebrate drawing instruments. Both were introduced by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756.
Circinus is visible in the far southern sky in the months around April, but contains only one star brighter than fourth magnitude. It lies across the plane of the Milky Way and despite its small size contains four open clusters with NGC numbers, including the Caldwell object C88 (NGC 5823).
1756 (Lacaille)
0.2% of the sky
93.4 square degrees
Circinus contains no Messier objects
Hover the pointer over the name of an object to highlight its position on the starchart to the right, or click to see more information.
| Stars | Open Clusters | Globular Clusters | Galaxies |
| α-Cir (mag 3.2) | NGC 5823 (mag 7.9) | ||
| β-Cir (mag 4.1) | NGC 5715 (mag 9.8) | ||
| γ-Cir (mag 4.5) | NGC 5288 (mag 11.8) | ||
| ε-Cir (mag 4.9) | NGC 5359 | ||
| θ-Cir (mag 5.0) | |||
| δ-Cir (mag 5.1) | |||
| TYC8707-1990-2 (mag 5.2) | |||
| η-Cir (mag 5.2) | |||
| HIP 73036 (mag 5.2) | |||
| HIP 72131 (mag 5.4) | |||
| HIP 74941 (mag 5.4) | |||
| HIP 70492 (mag 5.6) | |||
| HIP 75308 (mag 5.7) | |||
| HIP 67942 (mag 5.7) | |||
| HIP 69763 (mag 5.7) | |||
| HIP 67664 (mag 5.8) | |||
| HIP 74750 (mag 5.8) | |||
| HIP 70657 (mag 5.8) | |||
| HIP 72438 (mag 5.9) | |||
| HIP 71002 (mag 5.9) | |||
| AX Cir (mag 6.0) | |||
| HIP 68455 (mag 6.0) | |||
| HIP 71530 (mag 6.0) | |||
| ζ-Cir (mag 6.1) | |||
| HIP 69241 (mag 6.1) | |||
| HIP 69298 (mag 6.1) | |||
| BU Cir (mag 6.1) | |||
| HIP 72097 (mag 6.1) | |||
| HIP 71861 (mag 6.2) | |||
| HIP 72471 (mag 6.2) |
