Norma, resembles the shape of a carpenter’s level when stars in this constellation are imaginarily connected, as per Indian mythology!
Where should I see…
Lupus and Circinus constellations are towards west of Norma constellation. If you move your eyes
towards east, you will see another constellation named Ara. In the North and South of Norma, you will find Scorpius and Triangulum Australe constellations respectively. Norma is halfway between celestial equator and South Pole, and so is fully part of Southern Hemisphere.
It covers up 165 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 74th largest constellation in the sky.
When and What can I see…
We can gaze at this carpenter’s level shape of Norma constellation from February to October, as seen
from India.
All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 42 stars of this constellations, as they are the one which are brighter than the lower limit of our naked eyes (i.e. 6.5 apparent magnitude) to see faintest stars.. The brightest star of this constellation is Gamma Normae.
Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars. Out of total 42 stars of different types, here is the list of 20 brightest stars as per their nature:
| Binary / Multiple Star system |
Variable Stars |
Binary and Variable Stars |
Single stars |
| 8 |
3 |
1 |
8 |
Mythology stories…
As per Hindu mythology, there are no such known stories for this constellation.
Deep Sky Objects…
Fine Ring Nebula or Shapely 1 || Annular Planetary Nebula
Menzel 1 || Planetary Nebula
Ant Nebula or Mz 3 || Bipolar Planetary Nebula
NGC 6067 || Open Cluster
All the stars that we see naked eyes, all belong to our own, Milky way galaxy (Akash Ganga Tara Vishv). Bright stars can be seen naked eye and faint one through telescope. But the curtain of sky that we see in 2D is actually a huge universe we are talking about, with 3 dimension. There are many nebulous objects visible in every constellations. They differ widely by distances and nature. Like Emission Nebula, Reflecting Nebula, Absorption Nebula, Star Birth Nebula, Supernova Remnants (SNR) and Open Stars cluster which are within the disk of our own Milky Way galaxy. Globular cluster are also found, which are in the halo of our galaxy and some most distant objects like galaxies are also visible through telescope. Such objects are defined as “Deep Sky Objects”.
In this constellation there are 12 such different types of Deep Sky Objects observed. Below is the list of 12 brightest Deep Sky Objects:
Norma Cluster or Abell 3627 || Cluster of Galaxies
NGC 6152 || Open Cluster
S Normae Cluster or NGC 6087 || Open Cluster
NGC 6167 || Open Cluster
| |
Galaxy |
Open Cluster |
Globular Cluster |
Nebula |
Supernova Remnant |
|
| Naked eye visibility |
– |
2 |
– |
– |
– |
|
|
| Visible through Telescope |
– |
8 |
2 |
– |
– |
|
|
|
| |
– |
10 |
2 |
– |
– |
|
