Corvus & Crater

CORVUS the Crow and CRATER the Cup are two small, neighboring constellations. From a Northern Hemisphere perspective, Corvus is west of Crater. Both constellations are north of an extremely long, dim constellation called Hydra; they are also south of Virgo, while Crater is southwest of another small constellation: Sextans. There are several galaxies and other interesting cosmic phenomena in Corvus and Crater. The spectacular Antennae Galaxies in Eastern Corvus (comprised of galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039) are famous in astronomy because the two galaxies are colliding beautifully and forming one large galaxy. Illustrated by Roen Kelly, both constellation maps below are from the Astronomy Magazine's website (astronomy.com).



CORVUS
Brightest Star: Gienah (Gamma γ Corvi)
Second Brightest Star: Kraz (Beta β Corvi)
Galaxies: Antennae Galaxies*, NGC 4027^, and NGC 4802.
Planetary Nebula: NGC 4361*

* - National Optical Astronomy Observatory (USA) photos
^ - Australian Astronomical Observatory photo



CRATER
Brightest Star: δ Crateris (3.6 apparent magnitude)
Second Brightest Star: γ Crateris (4.1 apparent magnitude)
Galaxies: NGC 3511, NGC 3513, NGC 3672, NGC 3887, and NGC 3962