The Constellation Musca
Musca is a small southern constellation, which lies immediately south of Crux, the southern cross. It is circumpolar across much of the southern hemisphere, but appears highest in the midnight sky in the months around March.
Representing a fly, it is among the twelve constellations introduced by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman to represent animals, which first appeared on star maps in 1598.
The body of the fly is depicted by second and third magnitude stars lying within the plane of the Milky Way.
Musca is home to the globular clusters NGC 4833 and NGC 4372, which are assigned catalogue numbers C 105 and C 108 respectively in the Caldwell catalogue.
1598 (Keyser & de Houtman)
0.3% of the sky
138.4 square degrees
Musca 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-Mus (mag 2.6) | NGC 4463 (mag 7.2) | NGC 4833 (mag 7.3) | IC 2980 (mag 13.3) |
| β-Mus (mag 3.1) | NGC 4815 (mag 8.6) | NGC 4372 (mag 7.8) | |
| δ-Mus (mag 3.6) | |||
| λ-Mus (mag 3.6) | |||
| γ-Mus (mag 3.8) | |||
| TYC9228-3047-2 (mag 4.0) | |||
| ε-Mus (mag 4.2) | |||
| μ-Mus (mag 4.7) | |||
| η-Mus (mag 4.8) | |||
| HIP 64820 (mag 4.9) | |||
| HIP 57696 (mag 5.0) | |||
| HIP 57851 (mag 5.0) | |||
| ι¹-Mus (mag 5.0) | |||
| GT Mus (mag 5.1) | |||
| HD99104 (mag 5.1) | |||
| ζ²-Mus (mag 5.2) | |||
| HIP 59151 (mag 5.2) | |||
| HIP 58884 (mag 5.4) | |||
| HIP 55597 (mag 5.4) | |||
| HIP 62608 (mag 5.6) | |||
| HIP 55657 (mag 5.6) | |||
| HIP 65522 (mag 5.6) | |||
| θ-Mus (mag 5.7) | |||
| ζ¹-Mus (mag 5.7) | |||
| HIP 58720 (mag 5.9) | |||
| HIP 61181 (mag 5.9) | |||
| HIP 56287 (mag 5.9) | |||
| HIP 64466 (mag 5.9) | |||
| HIP 64390 (mag 5.9) | |||
| HIP 63165 (mag 5.9) |
