The Constellation Antlia
by Dominic Ford
Antlia is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky. Visible in the months around February, it contains only four stars brighter than fifth magnitude.
Despite lying close to the plane of the Milky Way, it contains few deep sky objects of interest – only faint galaxies, none of which exceed eleventh magnitude.
The name ‘Antlia’ is Latin for ‘air pump’ – a piece of apparatus that led to many discoveries about the properties of gases in the eighteenth century. The name was given to this sky area by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756.
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-Ant (mag 4.3) | NGC 2997 (mag 9.4) | ||
| ε-Ant (mag 4.5) | NGC 3223 (mag 11.0) | ||
| ι-Ant (mag 4.6) | NGC 3175 (mag 11.3) | ||
| θ-Ant (mag 4.8) | NGC 3100 (mag 11.4) | ||
| η-Ant (mag 5.2) | NGC 3268 (mag 11.4) | ||
| HIP 50888 (mag 5.3) | NGC 3087 (mag 11.4) | ||
| HIP 54173 (mag 5.4) | NGC 3108 (mag 11.5) | ||
| U Ant (mag 5.5) | NGC 3347 (mag 11.5) | ||
| HIP 46578 (mag 5.5) | NGC 3001 (mag 11.6) | ||
| AG Ant (mag 5.5) | NGC 3137 (mag 11.6) | ||
| δ-Ant (mag 5.6) | NGC 3358 (mag 11.6) | ||
| HIP 52965 (mag 5.6) | NGC 3095 (mag 11.6) | ||
| HIP 47199 (mag 5.6) | NGC 3275 (mag 11.7) | ||
| HIP 52407 (mag 5.6) | NGC 3038 (mag 11.7) | ||
| HIP 47187 (mag 5.7) | NGC 3056 (mag 11.7) | ||
| HIP 48748 (mag 5.8) | NGC 3271 (mag 11.7) | ||
| HIP 46736 (mag 5.9) | NGC 3281 (mag 11.9) | ||
| HIP 50103 (mag 5.9) | IC 2533 (mag 12.0) | ||
| ζ²-Ant (mag 5.9) | IC 2522 (mag 12.0) | ||
| HIP 48191 (mag 6.0) | IC 2552 (mag 12.1) | ||
| HIP 47224 (mag 6.0) | IC 2560 (mag 12.1) | ||
| ζ¹-Ant (mag 6.1) | NGC 3224 (mag 12.2) | ||
| HIP 46517 (mag 6.2) | IC 2531 (mag 12.2) | ||
| HIP 49769 (mag 6.2) | IC 2537 (mag 12.2) | ||
| HIP 50234 (mag 6.2) | NGC 3269 (mag 12.3) | ||
| ζ¹-Ant (mag 6.2) | NGC 3244 (mag 12.3) | ||
| HIP 50868 (mag 6.3) | IC 2587 (mag 12.3) | ||
| HIP 49418 (mag 6.3) | NGC 2904 (mag 12.5) | ||
| HIP 49967 (mag 6.3) | NGC 3273 (mag 12.5) | ||
| HIP 48468 (mag 6.3) | IC 2588 (mag 12.5) |
