CENTAURUS

CENTAURUS

(Abbreviation: Cen).

A brilliant southern constellation (one of Ptolemy’s originals). Containing many important objects, including the nearest of all the bright stars (a) and the superb globular cluster w. There are 18 stars brighter then the fourth magnitude:

BRIGHTEST STARS

STAR	R.A.			DEC			MAG.	ABS.MAG.	SPEC	DIST.PC
STAR	H	M	S	o	,	“	MAG.	ABS.MAG.	SPEC	DIST.PC
p	11	21	00.4	-54	29	27	3.89	-1.1	B5	99
l	11	35	46.8	-63	01	11	3.13	-0.8	B9	57
65G	11	46	30.7	-61	10	12	4.11	-2.0	GO	140
j	11	49	41.0	-45	10	25	4.32	-1.1	B5	120
B	11	51	08.5	-45	43	05	4.46	-0.3	K4	90
d	12	08	21.5	-50	43	20	2.30v	-2.5	B2	100
r	12	11	39.1	-52	22	07	3.96	-1.4	B4	120
t	12	37	42.1	-48	32	28	3.86	1.4	A2	30
s	12	28	02.4	-50	13	51	3.91	-1.7	B3	130
g	12	41	30.9	-48	57	34	2.17	-0.6	AO	34 MENKENT
w	12	42	35.3	-48	48	47	4.66	0.0	gK1	86
e	12	53	06.8	-48	56	35	4.33	-0.1	gk2	54
n	12	53	26.1	-40	10	44	4.27	0.5	A7	57
x²	13	06	54.5	-49	54	22	4.27	-3.0	B2	280
i	13	20	35.8	-36	42	44	2.75	1.4	A2	16
J	13	22	37.8	-60	59	18	4.53	-1.1	B5	130
m	13	24	00.5	-64	32	09	4.53	1.8	G5	35
d	13	31	02.6	-39	24	27	3.88	0.3	G8	36
e	13	39	53.2	-53	27	58	2.30	-3.5	B1	150
1	13	45	43.0	-33	02	30	4.23	0.8	F2	28
M	13	46	39.3	-51	25	58	4.65	0.2	gKO	78
2	13	49	26.6	-34	27	03	4.19	-0.5	M1	87
n	13	49	30.2	-41	41	16	3.41	-2.5	B2	150
m	13	49	36.9	-42	28	25	3.06	-1.7	B3	89
3	13	51	50.0	-32	59	41	4.32	-1.6	B5	91
4	13	53	12.4	-31	55	39	4.73	-1.6	B5	190
z	13	55	32.3	-47	17	17	2.55	-3.0	B2	110
294G	13	57	38.9	-63	41	11	4.71	-0.3	K4	100
f	13	58	16.2	-42	06	02	3.83	-2.5	B2	190
n¹	13	58	40.7	-44	48	13	3.87	-2.3	B3	170
n²	14	01	43.3	-45	36	12	4.34	-2.0	F5	160
b	14	03	49.4	-60	22	22	0.61	-5.1	B1	140 AGENA
c	14	16	02.7	-41	10	47	4.36	-2.5	B2	240
5 q	14	06	40.9	-36	22	12	2.06	1.7	KO	14
n	14	20	19.4	-56	23	12	4.33	-3.7	B5	310
y	14	20	33.3	-37	53	07	4.05	0.0	AO	65
a	14	23	02.1	-39	09	34	4.44	-1.9	B6	180
h	14	35	30.3	-42	09	28	2.31v	-2.9	B3	110
a² (	14	39	35.4	-60	50	13	1.39	5.7	K1	1.3)
a¹ (	14	39	36.7	-60	50	02	0.00	4.4	G2	1.3)
b	14	41	57.5	-37	47	37	4.00	-1.7	B3	140
c¹	14	43	39.3	-35	10	25	4.05	-0.3	K5	71
k	14	59	09.6	-42	06	15	3.13	-2.5	B2	130

Strangely, a has no official proper name. It has been called Al Rijil, and also Toliman, but astronomers in geneal prefer to call it simply a Centauri...

DOUBLES

STAR	R.A.		DEC		MAGS	P.A.	DIST.”
STAR	H	M	o	‘	MAGS	P.A.	DIST.”
g	12	41.5	-48	58	3.1, 3.2		CLOSE BINARY; 85 YEARS SEP 0”.2 TO 1”.7
h	14	25.5	-41	09	2.6, 135	270	FIXED
J	13	22.6	-60	59	4.6. 6.5	343	WIDE AND EASY
b	14	03.5	-60	22	0.6, 9.0	255	VERY SLOW BINARY
a	14	39.6	-60	50	1.4, 0.0	var.	BINARY, 80 YEARS

VARIABLES

STAR	R.A.		DEC		RANGE	PERIOD, D.	SPEC	TYPE
STAR	H	M	o	‘	RANGE	PERIOD, D.	SPEC	TYPE
RS	11	18.3	-61	36	7.8---13.9	164	M	MIRA
X	11	46.7	-41	28	7.0---13.9	315	M	MIRA
S	12	21.9	-49	09	6.5---8.0	65	N	SENI-REGULAR
U	12	30.7	-54	23	7.2---14.0	220	M	MIRA
RV	13	34.3	-56	13	7.0---10.8	446	M	MIRA
T	13	38.9	-33	21	5.5---9.0	91	M	SENI-REGULAR
R	14	12.9	-12.9	41	5.4---11.8	547	M	MIRA

CLUSTERS AND NEBULÆ.

OBJECT	R.A.		DEC		TYPE	NOTES
OBJECT	H	M	o	‘	TYPE	NOTES
NGC 3766 5289	11	33.9	-61	20	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG. 5 EASY IN BINOCULARS
NGC 3918	11	47.8	-56	24	PLANETARY	MAG. 8.4
NGC 3882	11	43.6	-56	05	NEBULA
NGC 5139 w	13	23.7	-47	03	OPEN CLUSTER	FINEST OF ALL GLOBULARS
NGC 5286	13	43.0	-51	07	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG. 8.5
NGC 5460	14	04.5	-48	05	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG.6.5 FAIRLY RICH