Ara - the Altar

Ara lies near the bend in the poisonous tail of Scorpius. It can be found by looking for Scorpius, and then looking southward, beneath the tail of the scorpion. It is a southern constellation which lies along the Milky Way. It is made up roughly of two parallel lines of stars. Ara reaches its highest point in the sky about 10 PM in July, but it is difficult to view from most northern latitudes.

History and Mythology

Ara, the Altar, is associated with the large constellation of Centaurus, which lies west of Ara. It was seen as an altar on which Centaurus intended to sacrifice Lupus, the Wolf.

It was known to Greek and Roman Astronomers. It is shown on maps as a sacrificial altar intended to sacrifice Lupus the Wolf. The centaur, half man and half horse, was said to be the wisest creature on Earth. He was the first to bring order to the sky by instructing mortals how to draw lines from star to star to form constellations.

Notable Objects

Ara is embedded in the southern Milky Way, where dense interstellar dust clouds hide the distant star clouds. The bright open cluster NGC 6193, embedded in the large emission nebula NGC 6188, is visible on dark, clear nights.

NGC 6397 is a 6th-magnitude globular cluster which can be seen as a hazy disc in a small telescope. It is one of the nearest globulars, at 7200 light years away. NGC 6352 is another 8th-magnitude globular, located about 19,000 light years away.