Crater (Chashak)
Crater, resembles the shape of a cup, when stars in this constellation are imaginarily connected, as per Indian mythology!
Where should I see…Hydra and Sextans, are the constellations towards west of Crater constellation. If
you move your eyes towards east, you will see other constellations named Corvus and Virgo. In the North and South of Crater, you will find Leo and Hydra constellations respectively. Crater is halfway between celestial equator and South Pole, and so is fully part of Southhern Hemisphere.
It covers up 282 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 53rd largest constellation in the sky.
We can gaze at this cup shape of Crater constellation from November to July, as seen from India.
When and What can I see…All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 33 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 Labrum.
Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars. Out of total 33 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 |
| 5 | 1 | – | Alkes |
| – | – | – | Labrum |
| – | – | – | 12 |
| 5 | 1 | – | 14 |
Mythology stories…
As per Hindi mythology, there are no such known stories for this constellation.
Deep Sky Objects…
Crater 2 || Dwarf Galaxy
NGC 3513 || Spiral Galaxy
NGC 3511, NGC 3513 || Spiral Galaxy
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 166 such different types of Deep Sky Objects observed. Below is the list of 20 brightest Deep Sky Objects:
| Galaxy | Open Cluster | Globular Cluster | Nebula | Supernova Remnant | ||
| Naked eye visibility | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Visible through Telescope | 20 | – | – | – | – | |
| 20 | – | – | – | – |
NGC 3887 || Spiral Galaxy
NGC 3981 || Spiral Galaxy