Fornax (Bhatti)
Fornax, resembles the shape of a furnace, when stars in this constellation are imaginarily connected, as per Indian mythology!
Where should I see…Sculptor, is the constellation which is towards west of Fornax constellation. If
you move your eyes towards east, you will see another constellation named E
ridanus. In the North and South of Fornax, you will find Cetus and Phoenix constellations respectively. Fornax is halfway between celestial equator and South Pole, and so is fully part of Southern Hemisphere.
It covers up 398 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 41st largest constellation in the sky.
When and What can I see…We can gaze at this furnace shape of Fornax constellation from July to February, as
seen from India.
All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 398 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 Dalim.
Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars. Out of total 398 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 |
| 2 | 3 | Dalim | 14 |
| 2 | 3 | 1 | 14 |
As per Hindu mythology, there are no such known stories for this constellation.
Deep Sky Objects…
Fornax A or NGC 1316 || Lenticular Galaxy
Fornax Cluster || Cluster of Galaxies
Fornax Dwarf Galaxy || Elliptical Dwarf 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 109 such different types of Deep Sky Objects observed. Below is the list of 20 brightest Deep Sky Objects:
Robin’s Egg Nebula or NGC 1360 || Planetary Nebula
NGC 1399 || Large Elliptical Galaxy
NGC 1427 || Elliptical Galaxy
NGC 1350 || Spiral Galaxy
| Galaxy | Open Cluster | Globular Cluster | Nebula | Supernova Remnant | ||
| Naked eye visibility | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Visible through Telescope | 19 | – | – | – | – | |
| 19 | – | – | – | – |
NGC 1404 || Elliptical Galaxy
NGC 1049 || Globular Cluster
NGC 1097 || Spiral Galaxy
NGC 1398 || Isolated Barred Spiral Galaxy