Ara
Origin
Ara is one of the 48 constellations described by Ptolemy. It represents the altar on which the Greek Gods forged an alliance against the Titans. The bright stars in Ara are also included in other constellations from Chinese and Wardaman cultures.
Bright Stars
The two brightest stars in Ara are Beta Arae (magnitude 2.80) and Alpha Arae (magnitude 2.97). Other bright stars in this constellation include Zeta, Delta, Epsilon, and Eta Arae.
Photo of the constellation Ara produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer.
The annotations are from a standardized set of 88 western IAU constellations and stick figures from Sky & Telescope. Please find here a non-annotated version of the image.
Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani
Latin name
English name
Ara
Pronunciation
AY-rah
Abbreviation
Ara
Notable Objects
A number of interesting objects can be found within Ara:
- NGC 6352, a globular cluster with an apparent magnitude of 8.2.
- NGC 6397 is a globular cluster with apparent magnitude 5.7.
- NGC 6193 is an open star cluster with an apparent magnitude of 5.2.
- NGC 6300 is a barred spiral galaxy.
