Pictor
No
- Dove
- Burin
- Swordfish
- Flying Fish
- Keel of the boat
- Aft deck of the ship
The painter (Latin Pictor ) is an inconspicuous constellation of the southern sky, which can not be seen due to its southern location from Germany. It is located west of the bright star Canopus, which belongs to the keel of the ship ( Carina ). Only two stars are brighter than fourth magnitude. The constellation was introduced in 1752 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. On older star charts, it is usually depicted as an easel with paintbrush.
Celestial objects
Outstanding objects
- The brightest star, α Pictoris is a blue-white supergiant of spectral type A6 V in 100 light years away. He has three times the diameter, three times the mass and luminosity 40 times that of our sun.
- β Pictoris is 63 light years distant star with nine times the luminosity and twice the mass of our sun. He belongs to the spectral class A5 V and is the second brightest star of the constellation. 1984, a dust disk of 25 AU diameter was around β Pictoris detected. He was the first star in which this could be first observed directly by optical telescope. Maybe it involves an accretion disk from which a planetary system can form. Observations suggest that may already two planets could have formed. Recent Hubble images indicate two separate dust disks with a large planet.
- Kapteyn's star, a subdwarf with an apparent magnitude of 8.8 m. At a distance of only 12.77 light years, he is one of the nearest neighbors of the sun. To his observation requires at least one prism binoculars. 1897 noted the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn that the position of a faint star had changed significantly. Kapteyn's star has 8.73 seconds of arc per year, according to Barnard's Star, the second highest measured proper motion of all stars.
- AB Pictoris, a variable star is located 150 light-years from our sun.
- ι Pictoris is a double star system with an apparent magnitude of 5.58 / 6.42 m, which can already be observed with a small telescope from 5 cm opening. It has a distance of 12.3. "
- The painter is also located 17 million light- years distant irregular galaxy NGC 1705.