Constellation Norma (Carpenter's Square)

Properties

The constellation lies in the band of the Milky Way. A strip of galactic dust crosses the constellation from the north and divides the Milky Way into two halves, which reunite further to the southwest. Otherwise, Norma is a very inconspicuous constellation with stars just under 5th mag. The area is 165 square degrees and the centre culminates around midnight on May 21, and is not visible from Central Europe. ^{[9, 15]}

Data for constellation Norma ^[150]
IAU Name	Norma
IAU Genitive	Normae
IAU Abbr.	Nor
English Name	Carpenter's Square
Culmination at local midnight	23 May
Season (Latitude +46.8°)	[Not visible]
Right Ascension (J2000.0)	15^h 12^m 14^s … 16^h 36^m 08^s
Declination (J2000.0)	-60° 26' 08" … -42° 16' 03"
Area	165 deg²
Neighbours (N↻)	Sco, Lup, Cir, TrA, Ara

Deep-Sky Object Descriptions

NGC 6087

Catalogues

History

Norma is a superfluous constellation from the series of technical and scientific devices by the unimaginative Frenchman Lacaille. It was introduced in 1752. Originally the stars belonged to the neighboring figures Ara and Lupus. The constellation boundaries proposed by Lacaille were changed afterwards, so that the stars α and β Normae no longer belong to them today. ^{[7, 21]}