The Sculptor constellation contains one formally named star. The star name, as approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is Cocibolca. The constellation doesn’t contain any stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 and contains two stars located within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years) of Earth. The brightest star in the constellation is Alpha Sculptoris, with an apparent magnitude of 4.30 and the nearest star is Gliese 1, located at a distance of 14.22 light years from Earth.
The constellation is home to six stars with known exoplanets, HD 4208, HD 4113, HD 9578, WASP-8, WASP-29 and WASP-45. It does not contain any Messier objects and is not associated with any meteor showers, but does contain some interesting deep sky objects. These include the Sculptor Galaxy, the Cartwheel Galaxy, Pandora’s Cluster and the Giant Squid Galaxy.
History and Mythology Of The Sculptor Constellation
Sculptor was introduced by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille between 1751-1752. He named it Apparatus Sculptoris originally, which means “the sculptor’s studio”, on his planisphere of 1756. It was depicted as a carved head lying on a tripod table, next to a sculptor’s mallet and two chisels.
On his 1763 planisphere, the name was Latinized to Apparatus Sculptoris and, in 1844, the English astronomer John Herschel proposed shortening the name to Sculptor. This name has stuck ever since.
Sculptor constellation is not associated with any myths.
Location Of The Sculptor Constellation
Sculptor is the 36th largest constellation and occupies an area of 475 square degrees. It is located in the first quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ1) and can be seen at latitudes between +50° and -90°.
Its right ascension is 0h and its declination is −30°. It is bets seen at 9pm during the month of November. The whole constellation is visible to observers south of latitude 50°N.
Sculptor’s neighboring constellations are Aquarius, Cetus, Fornax, Grus, Phoenix and Piscis Austrinus and it belongs to the Lacaille family of constellations, along with Antlia, Caelum, Circinus, Fornax, Horologium, Mensa, Microscopium, Norma, Octans, Pictor, Reticulum and Telescopium.
Notable Stars
Alpha Sculptoris
Alpha Sculptoris is the brightest star in the constellation and has an apparent magnitude of 4.30. It has the stellar classification of B7 IIIp, which means that it is a blue-white giant star. It is also classified as an SX Arietis type variable, which means it is a high-temperature star that exhibits a strong magnetic field and strong H2e I and Si III spectral lines, and its brightness varies by 0.01 magnitudes.
Alpha Sculptoris is located around 780 light years away from Earth. It has a mass 5.5 times that of the Sun and a radius that is 7 times that fo the Sun. Its surface temperature is 17,379 kelvins and it is about 1,700 times more luminous than the Sun.
Beta Sculptoris
Beta Sculptoris is the second brightest star in the constellation and has an apparent magnitude of 4.38. It is a blue-white subgiant with the stellar classification of B9.5IV and is 82 times more luminous than the Sun. It is located around 178 light years away from the Solar System and has a mass that is 3.1 times that of the Sun and a radius that is twice that of the Sun.
Beta Sculptoris is also a mercury-manganese star with a strong magnetic field.
Gamma Sculptoris
Gamma Sculptoris is the third brightest star in the constellation and has a visual magnitude of 4.41. It is an orange giant star belonging to the spectral class K1III and is located around 179 light years away from us.
Delta Sculptoris
Delta Sculptoris is a triple star system with the stellar classification of A0V. It has an apparent magnitude of 4.59 and is located around 143 light years away from the Sun. The primary component is a white main sequence dwarf star, while the first companion is an 11th magnitude star around 4 arc seconds away and the second companion is a yellow, class G star with an apparent magnitude of 9.4. The second companion orbits the pair at a distance of 74 arc seconds.
Epsilon Sculptoris
Epsilon Sculptoris is a star system with an apparent magnitude of 5.29 and the stellar classification of F2IV+G9V, located around 89.5 light years away from Earth. The brightest star in the system is a yellow-white class F subgiant, while the first companion is a yellow dwarf star of the spectral type G, with a visual magnitude of 8.6. Together, the two stars complete an orbit around their common centre of mass every 1,200 years.
There are two other companions in the system. One is a 15th magnitude star separated by 15 arc seconds from the main pair and the other is an 11th magnitude star separated by 142 arc seconds.
Eta Sculptoris
Eta Sculptoris is a red giant belonging to the spectral class M2/M3III with an apparent magnitude of 4.86. It is also classified as an irregular variable star and its brightness varies between magnitudes 4.80 and 4.90. It is located around 548 light years away from the Solar System.
Zeta Sculptoris
Zeta Sculptoris is a binary star with the stellar classification of B4V. It has an apparent magnitude of 5.04 and is located around 510 light years away from Earth. The primary component in the system is a blue-white main sequence dwarf and the companion is a 13th magnitude star separated from the primary by 3 arc seconds.
Iota Sculptoris
Iota Sculptoris is an orange giant belonging to the stellar class K0III with an apparent magnitude of 5.18. It is located around 311 light years away from the Solar System.
Kappa Sculptoris
Kappa Sculptoris is a Bayer designation shared by two systems, Kappa-1 Sculptoris and Kappa-2 Sculptoris. They are separated by 0.53° in the sky.
Kappa-1 Sculptoris is a triple star system with a combined apparent magnitude of 5.42. It is located around 224 light years away from us. It is composed of a binary pair of yellow, class F giant stars with apparent magnitudes of 6.2 and 6.3, and an 18th magnitude companion separated by 70 arc seconds from the main pair.
Kappa-2 Sculptoris is a binary star composed of an orange giant and a 21st magnitude companion 46 arc seconds away. It has an apparent magnitude of 5.41 and is located around 581 light years away from the Sun.
Lambda Sculptoris
Lambda Sculptoris is a Bayer designation shared by two systems, Lambda-1 Sculptoris and Lambda-2 Sculptoris. They are separated by 0.29° in the sky.
Lambda-1 Sculptoris is a binary system composed of a blue-white main sequence dwarf star of the spectral class B9.5V, with an apparent magnitude of 6.7, and a white star of the spectral type A9, with a visual magnitude of 7.0. They system has a combined visual magnitude of 6.05 and is located around 432 light years away from Earth.
Lambda-2 Sculptoris is an orange giant with the stellar classification of K1III and an apparent magnitude of 5.90. It is located around 372 light years away from Earth.
R Sculptoris
R Sculptoris is a red giant in the final stage of its existence, with an apparent magnitude of 5.77. It is located around 1,500 light years away from Earth and is notable for the unusual spiral structure in the material surrounding it.
HD 4113
HD 4113 is a yellow dwarf of the spectral class G5V. It has an apparent magnitude of 7.88 and is located around 144 light years away from the Solar System. On October 26, 2007, a planet was discovered in the star’s orbit. It has an orbital period of 526.62 days and has a mass at least 1.56 times that of Jupiter.
HD 4208
HD 4208 is a yellow main sequence dwarf with the stellar classification of G5V and an apparent magnitude of 7.79. It is similar to the Sun, but slightly dimmer and cooler and cannot be seen without binoculars.
It is located around 106 light years away from the Sun and, in 2001, a planet was discovered in the star’s orbit. This dwarf has an orbital period of 828 days.
HD 9578
HD 9578 is a yellow main sequence dwarf with the stellar classification of G1V and an apparent magnitude of 8.201. It is located around 187 light years away from Earth.
In 2009, a planet with 0.62 times Jupiter’s mass was discovered orbiting the star with a period of 494 days.
WASP-8
WASP-8 is a yellow main sequence dwarf that belongs to the spectral class G6 and has a visual magnitude of 9.9. It is located around 160 light years away from Earth and has 79 percent of the Sun’s luminosity. It also has 93 percent of the Sun’s mass and radius.
A planet called WASP-8b was discovered in the star’s orbit. It has an orbital period of 8.16 days and a mass 2.23 times that of Jupiter.
Deep Sky Objects
Sculptor Group
The Sculptor Group is a group of galaxies located around 12.7 million light years away from the Milky Way, near the south galactic pole in Sculptor constellation. It is a relatively loose group, and one of the closest groups of galaxies to the Local Group. Its brightest members include the Sculptor Galaxy, NGC 7793 and the barred irregular galaxy PGC 6430.
Sculptor Galaxy
The Sculptor Galaxy, also known as Silver Coin, Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253 or Caldwell 65, is an intermediate spiral galaxy that is undergoing a period of intense star formation. It is one of the brightest galaxies in the sky, with a visual magnitude of 8.0, and can easily be observed with binoculars.
The Sculptor Galaxy is located around 11.4 million light years away from the Solar System and was discovered by the German-British astronomer Caroline Herschel in 1783. It lies at the centre of the Sculptor Group and is the brightest galaxy in the group. It is also a strong radio source.
Sculptor Dwarf
The Sculptor Dwarf, also known as the Sculptor Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy or the Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy, is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy that was discovered by the American astronomer Harlow Shapley in 1937. It has an apparent magnitude of 10.1 and is located around 290,000 light years away from Earth.
Sculptor Dwarf Irregular Galaxy
Sculptor Dwarf Irregular Galaxy is an irregular galaxy in the Sculptor Group. It has an apparent magnitude of 15.5 and is a companion to the galaxy NGC 7793, which is another bright member of the Sculptor Group.
It was discovered in 1976 and is located around 13.4 million light years away from Earth.
Cartwheel Galaxy
The Cartwheel Galaxy is a lenticular and ring galaxy with a visual magnitude of 15.2. It used to be a regular spiral galaxy until it collided with a smaller companion galaxy about 200 million years ago. Now, it is retaking the form of a spiral galaxy.
It was first discovered by the Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in 1941 and is located around 500 million light years away from the Solar System. It spans around 150,000 light years across, which makes it slightly larger than our own galaxy.
Pandora’s Cluster
Pandora’s Cluster, also known as Abell 2744, is a giant cluster of galaxies that is the result of at least four smaller galaxy clusters piling up over a period of 350 million years. It is mainly compiled of dark matter (75%) and hot gas (about 20%), while the galaxies make up less than 5%. It is located around 3,982 million light years away from Earth.
Southern Cigar Galaxy
The Southern Cigar Galaxy, also known as NGC 55 or Caldwell 72, is a barred spiral galaxy that is seen almost edge-on. It has an apparent magnitude of 7.87.
It is located around 7.2 million light years away from Earth and is one of the closest galaxies to the Local Group, just like the nearby NGC 300. The two galaxies lie in the foreground of the Sculptor Group and may be gravitationally bound.
The Southern Cigar Galaxy shouldn’t be confused with the Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82) in Ursa Major constellation.
Giant Squid Galaxy
The Giant Squid Galaxy, also known as NGC 134, is a barred spiral galaxy that was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop in 1828 and independently found by John Herschel six years later. It has an apparent magnitude of 10.40 and is located around 60 million light years away from us.
The galaxy has a warped disc and a trail of gas that appears to have been stripped from the top edge of the disc. This indicates that the galaxy had an encounter with another galaxy.
In On June 20, 2009, a supernova was observed in the galaxy. It was classified as a Type IIb supernova and reached a peak apparent magnitude of 15.9.
NGC 7
NGC 7 is a spiral galaxy that is possible barred and appears edge-on. It was discovered by the English astronomer John Herschel in 1834 and has an apparent magnitude of 13.5. It is located around 71.4 million light years away from the Sun.
NGC 10
NGC 10 is a spiral galaxy that is located around 300 million light years away from Earth. Little else is known about this spiral galaxy at the moment.
NGC 24
NGC 24 is a spiral galaxy with an apparent magnitude of 12.4 that is located around 22.5 million light years away from the Solar System. It was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel in 1785, and measures about 40 000 light-years across.
NGC 288
NGC 288 is a globular cluster with an apparent magnitude of 9.37 and can be seen with binoculars. It is located around 28,700 light years away from Earth, about 1.8 degrees to the southeast of the Sculptor Galaxy and 37′ to the north-northeast of the South Galactic Pole.
NGC 300
NGC 300, also known as Caldwell 70, is a bright spiral galaxy with an apparent magnitude of 9.0. Like The Southern Cigar Galaxy, NGC 55, it is located in the foreground of the Sculptor Group. It is located around 6.07 million light years away from the Sun. The galaxy also has an X-ray source at the core, designated NGC 300 X-1.
NGC 613
NGC 613 is a barred spiral galaxy that was discovered by William Herschel in 1798 and later independently discovered and catalogued by James Dunlop. It is an outlying member of the Sculptor Group, located around 67.5 million light years away from us. It has an apparent magnitude of 10 and an apparent size of 5’.2 x 2’.6.
NGC 7793
NGC 7793 is a spiral galaxy that was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop in 1826. It has an apparent magnitude of 10 and is located around 12.7 million light years away from us.
In 2008, a supernova, SN 2008bk, was observed in the galaxy. It has a visual magnitude of 12.5 and was the second brightest supernova event of the year.
Blanco 1
Blanco 1 is an open cluster that was named after Victor Manuel Blanco, the Puerto Rican astronomer who discovered it in 1949. It contains about 300 stars, 170 of which are brighter than magnitude 12, and it is located around 850 light years away from Earth. It is thought to be between 100 and 150 million years old.
ESO 540-030
ESO 540-030 is a dwarf galaxy that is one of the galaxies in the Sculptor Group. It is not easy to observe because there are five bright stars located in the foreground and several galaxies in the background. It is located around 11 million light years away from the Sun.
Extra Facts
- The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is “Scl”.
- The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 6 segments.
- Sculptor (AK-103) was a United States Navy Crater class cargo ship named after the constellation.
Images:
- Some Images created with the NightVision app – https://www.nvastro.com/nvj.html
- Some Images created with the Stelvision Sky Map https://www.stelvision.com/en/sky-map/
- Sculptor 1 -https://starregistration.net/constellations/sculptor-constellation.html
- Sculptor 2 – https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/sculptor-constellation/
- Cartwheel Galaxy – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartwheel_Galaxy
- Sculptor 3 – https://in-the-sky.org/data/constellation.php?id=75
- Sculptor Group – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculptor_Group
- Sculptor Galaxy – http://annesastronomynews.com/photo-gallery-ii/galaxies-clusters/the-sculptor-galaxy-ngc-253/
- Pandora’s Cluster – https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/pandora.html
- Sculptor Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculptor_Dwarf_Galaxy
- Southern Cigar Galaxy – https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-82-the-cigar-galaxy/
- Giant Squid Galaxy – https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161027.html