Ara - Altar

Learn about the southern constellation Ara - The Altar, location, facts, mythology, meteor showers and deep space objects.

Ara, Latin for "the Altar", is a southern constellation situated between the constellations Scorpius and Triangulum Australe.

Location: Southern Constellation 17h RA -53° Dec

Ara's brightest star, β Arae, has an apparent magnitude of 2.9. γ Arae is a double star just south of β. μ Arae is believed to have at least four planets orbiting it, one of which may be rocky.

Ara Mythology

The altar, usually depicted upside down, but sometimes upright with the smoke drifting into the Milky Way, was identified as that of the centaur Chiron; its original Latin name was Ara Centauri. It was also occasionally called the altar of Dionysus.

Ara Deep Space Objects

The northwest corner of Ara is crossed by the galactic plane of the Milky Way and contains several open clusters (notably NGC 6200) and diffuse nebulae (including the bright cluster/nebula pair NGC 6188 and NGC 6193). The brightest of the globular clusters, sixth magnitude NGC 6397, lies at a distance of just 6,500 light-years, making it one of the closest globular clusters to the Solar System.

It also contains Westerlund 1, a superstar cluster containing itself the possible red supergiant Westerlund 1-237 and the red supergiant Westerlund 1-26. The latter is one of the largest stars known with an estimate varying between 1,168 R_☉ (R_☉ is the radius of the Sun) and 2,550 R_☉.

Although Ara lies close to the heart of the Milky Way, two spiral galaxies (NGC 6215 and NGC 6221) are visible near star Eta Arae.[40]

In this table, the observation month represents the month in which the object reaches its highest point in the sky. It can also be viewed a few months before and after depending on your location. Direction is the compass direction in which the object is located, with Z meaning Zenith or overhead.