Norma
Origin
Norma is a small constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere between Ara and Lupus, one of twelve drawn up in the eighteenth century by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille and one of several depicting scientific instruments. Norma represents a carpenters square. The original name of the constellation was L’Équerre et La Règle which trasnlates as "the set square and the ruler".
Bright Stars
Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Eta Normae make up a square in the field of faint stars. Gamma Normae is the brightest star with an apparent magnitude of 4.0. The constellation is very hard to see with the naked eye.
Photo of the constellation Norma 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
Norma
Genitive forms
Normae
English name
The Carpenter's Square
Pronunciation
NOR-ma
Abbreviation
Nor
Notable Objects
The constellation Norma contains these objects:
- NGC 6087 is a magnitude-5.4 open cluster about 3300 light-years away.
- NGC 6067 has a magnitude of 5.6 and lies in a rich star field.
- NGC 6167 is an open cluster with a magnitude of 6.7 about 4000 light-years away.
