Corona Australis
Origin
As its name implies, Corona Australis is a southern constellation that skirts the southern horizon in summer months for observers at mid-northern latitudes and is better viewed from farther south. Its name in Latin means ‘southern crown’ (a counterpart to the northern crown, Corona Borealis). Corona Australis is one of the constellations listed by the second-century astronomer Ptolemy and it had been invented only a few decades earlier in first century Rome.
Bright Stars
Corona Australis is a dim constellation. Its brightest star is Meridiana which shines at magnitude 4.1. Meridiana is a main sequence star that lies 125 light-years from Earth. Beta Coronae Australis is an orange giant that lies 474 light-years from Earth and is almost as bright at magnitude 4.11. Gamma Coronae Australis shines at magnitude 4.2 and is a tight double star separated by only 1.3 arcseconds, a good challenge for a small telescope.
Photo of the constellation Corona Australis 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
Corona Australis
Genitive forms
Coronae Australis
English name
The Southern Crown
Pronunciation
coe-ROW--nah ow-STRAHL-iss
Abbreviation
CrA
Notable Objects
Corona Australis has a number of interesting objects:
- The Coronet Cluster is a small 8th-magnitude open cluster of very young stars.
- IC1297 is a magnitude-10.7 planetary nebula and requires a moderate sized telescope to observe.
- NGC 6541 is a magnitude-6.3 globular cluster located 22,000 light-years away that is visible with binoculars and small telescopes.
