Sculptor - The Sculptor

Sculptor occupies a rather sparse area of the southern fall sky. It is directly south of Cetus and Aquarius, and it lies at a right angle to the Milky Way. The South Galactic Pole is in the constellation Sculptor, meaning that the axis of the Milky Way passes through Sculptor. In the northern sky, its axis passes through Coma Berenices.

History and Mythology

Sculptor is one of the southern constellations named by Lacaille in the 18th century. He originally named it the "Sculptor's Workshop" or "Sculptor's Studio". As a modern constellation, Sculptor has no mythology associated with it.

Notable Objects

The stars of Sculptor are all 4th magnitude and fainter. The brightest star is Alpha Sculptoris, with a magnitude of 4.3. Beta Sculptoris is magnitude 4.4. Gamma Sculptoris is a yellow giant of magnitude 4.4.

Several interesting deep sky objects are found in Sculptor. NGC 288 is an 8th magnitude globular cluster, visible in a small telescope. NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy, is also sometimes called the Silver Dollar galaxy, and is the brightest galaxy in the constellation. It is a 9th-magnitude spiral seen almost edge-on, with complex dust lanes, and is about 10 million light years away. NGC 55 is the second-brightest galaxy in the Sculptor Group, a spindle-shaped spiral of 9th magnitude. NGC 300 is a fainter spiral with a star-like nucleus. Each of these galaxies is visible in an 8 to 12 inch telescope.