The Constellation Delphinus
Delphinus is a moderately small and faint constellation which lies close to the southern vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism, near the star Altair in Aquila. It is highest in the evening sky in the months around July.
At its center is a grouping of fourth-magnitude stars, forming an asterism sometimes known as Job's Coffin because of its box-like shape.
The name ‘Delphinus’ is Latin for ‘dolphin’, usually identified as the messenger of Poseidon, sent to entreat the sea nymph Amphitrite to marry him.
The constellation's two brightest stars are sometimes called Rotanev and Sualocin. These strange names first appeared in the Palermo Catalogue of 1814. Together, they spell out the name Nicolaus Venator backwards, which is the Latinized form of Niccolo Cacciatore, an observing assistant. They are the only example of stars named after a real person.
Delphinus is home to a number of notable deep sky objects, including the globular cluster NGC 6934 and the planetary nebula NGC 6891.
Ancient
0.5% of the sky
188.5 square degrees
Delphinus 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 |
| Rotanev (mag 3.6) | NGC 6950 | NGC 6934 (mag 8.9) | NGC 6928 (mag 12.6) |
| Sualocin (mag 3.8) | NGC 7006 (mag 10.6) | NGC 6930 (mag 12.9) | |
| ε-Del (mag 4.0) | NGC 6954 (mag 13.2) | ||
| γ²-Del (mag 4.2) | NGC 6956 (mag 13.4) | ||
| δ-Del (mag 4.4) | NGC 6969 (mag 13.5) | ||
| ζ-Del (mag 4.7) | NGC 6944 (mag 13.7) | ||
| ρ-Aql (mag 4.9) | NGC 7003 (mag 13.8) | ||
| γ¹-Del (mag 5.0) | NGC 7025 (mag 14.0) | ||
| κ-Del (mag 5.1) | NGC 6972 (mag 14.0) | ||
| 17-Del (mag 5.2) | NGC 6917 (mag 14.2) | ||
| η-Del (mag 5.4) | IC 1320 (mag 14.4) | ||
| ι-Del (mag 5.4) | NGC 6927 (mag 14.5) | ||
| Musica (mag 5.5) | NGC 6971 (mag 14.7) | ||
| 16-Del (mag 5.5) | IC 1359 (mag 14.7) | ||
| 13-Del (mag 5.6) | NGC 7028 (mag 14.8) | ||
| θ-Del (mag 5.7) | NGC 6988 (mag 14.8) | ||
| HIP 103675 (mag 5.7) | NGC 6955 (mag 15.3) | ||
| HIP 100256 (mag 5.9) | NGC 6957 (mag 15.3) | ||
| HIP 101909 (mag 6.0) | IC 5080 (mag 15.3) | ||
| 15-Del (mag 6.0) | |||
| 10-Del (mag 6.0) | |||
| HIP 100511 (mag 6.2) | |||
| HIP 100274 (mag 6.2) | |||
| HIP 102833 (mag 6.2) | |||
| 1-Del (mag 6.2) | |||
| HIP 100969 (mag 6.2) | |||
| HIP 101213 (mag 6.2) | |||
| HIP 100208 (mag 6.2) | |||
| HIP 100807 (mag 6.2) | |||
| HIP 100953 (mag 6.2) |
