Musca is a southern constellation. It is one of the smallest constellations in the sky. It is east of Carina and south of Crux, where it intersects part of the bright southern Milky Way.
History and Mythology
This constellation was originally named Apis, the Bee. It was called Musca Apis by Edmond Halley, which means "the Fly Bee". It appears as a fly on Lacaille's star map in 1763. As a modern constellation, Musca has no associated mythology.
Notable Objects
Alpha Muscae, occasionally called by the Greek name "Myla", which means "Fly", is a 3rd magnitude star at a distance of 300 light-years. Beta Muscae is a double star with magnitudes of 3.7 and 4.0 separated by 1.4 arcseconds.
NGC 4372 is an 8th magnitude globular cluster with angular size 2/3 that of the full moon. Its stars are only of 12th magnitude and fainter, because of obscuring dust which dims starlight from this region. NGC 4833 is an 8th magnitude globular cluster which is about 17,000 light-years away.
The brightest nebula in Musca is NGC 5189, in the northeastern corner of the consolation near its border with Centaurus. It it a peculiar S-shaped planetary nebula with a complex filamentary structure. There are no prominent galaxies in this constellation.