Crater

Crater is a faint constellation in the southern sky which appears highest in the evening sky in the months around April. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the second-century astronomer Ptolemy

It contains only one star brighter than fourth magnitude, and does not contain any bright deep sky objects since it lies well away from the plane of the Milky Way.

It can be found next to the more prominent constellation Corvus, the crow. Mythologically, the two constellations form part of the same tale.

Crater is identified with a story from Greek mythology in which a crow or raven serves Apollo, and is sent to fetch water, but it delays its journey as it finds some figs and waits for them to ripen before eating them. Finally it retrieves the water in a cup, and takes back a water snake, blaming it for drinking the water. According to the myth, Apollo saw through the fraud, and angrily cast the crow, cup, and snake, into the sky. The three constellations were arranged in such a way that the crow was prevented from drinking from the cup, and hence seen as a warning against sinning against the gods. Apollo cast all three into the sky as Corvus, Crater, and Hydra (the water snake).

In the Babylonian star catalogues dating from at least 1100 BC, the stars of Crater were possibly incorporated with those of the crow Corvus in the Babylonian Raven

In Chinese astronomy, the stars of Crater are located within the constellation of the Vermillion Bird of the South

In the Indian system, Crater is known as ಕಂದರ (Kandara)

Crater contains:

 

• Stars
  • δ-Crt (mag 3.6)
  • Alkes (mag 4.1)
  • γ-Crt (mag 4.1)
  • β-Crt (mag 4.5)
  • θ-Crt (mag 4.7)
  • ζ-Crt (mag 4.7)
  • ε-Crt (mag 4.8)
  • λ-Crt (mag 5.1)
  • η-Crt (mag 5.2)
  • ι-Crt (mag 5.5)
  • HD 95808 (mag 5.5)
  • HD 94481 (mag 5.7)
  • HD 99922 (mag 5.8)
  • HD 95314 (mag 5.9)
  • HD 95234 (mag 5.9)
  • κ-Crt (mag 5.9)
  • HD 100343 (mag 5.9)
  • HD 100418 (mag 6.1)
  • HD 96220 (mag 6.1)
  • ψ-Crt (mag 6.1)
  • SV Crt (mag 6.1)
  • HD 102845 (mag 6.1)
  • HD 101369 (mag 6.2)
  • HD 101370 (mag 6.2)
  • HD 101695 (mag 6.2)
• Open Clusters
  None
• Globular Clusters
  None
• Galaxy
  • • NGC 3831 (mag 10.9)
    • NGC 3887 (mag 11.0)
    • NGC 3511 (mag 11.7)
    • NGC 3981 (mag 11.8)
    • NGC 3955 (mag 11.9)
    • NGC 3672 (mag 11.9)
    • IC 2627 (mag 12.0)
    • NGC 3513 (mag 12.2)
    • NGC 3962 (mag 12.2)
    • NGC 3892 (mag 12.2)
    • NGC 3544 (mag 12.8)
    • NGC 3956 (mag 13.0)
    • NGC 3905 (mag 13.0)
    • NGC 3637 (mag 13.0)
    • NGC 3858 (mag 13.0)
    • NGC 3636 (mag 13.0)
    • NGC 3479 (mag 13.0)
    • NGC 3715 (mag 13.0)
    • NGC 3957 (mag 13.0)
    • NGC 3456 (mag 13.1)
    • NGC 3836 (mag 13.4)
    • NGC 3763 (mag 13.4)
    • NGC 3693 (mag 13.4)
    • NGC 3597 (mag 13.6)
    • NGC 3732 (mag 13.7)