Libra (Tula)
Libra, resembles the shape of a weighing scales, when stars in this constellation are imaginarily connected, as per Indian mythology!
Where should I see…Virgo and Hydra are constellations towards west of Libra constellation. If you
move your eyes towards east, you will see another constellation named Scorpius and Ophiuchus. In the North and South of Libra, you will find Serpens Caput and Lupus constellations respectively. Libra is halfway between celestial equator and South Pole, and so is fully part of Southern Hemisphere.
It covers up 538 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 29th largest constellation in the sky.
When and What can I see…It is on the zodiacal belt and hence is the 7th zodiac on the zodiac belt. Sun enters in
this constellation from 31st October to 22nd November. It is best observed during January to September as seen from India.
All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 85 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 Zubeneschamal. The Hindu name is Vishakha, which is also known as Nakshatra (lunar mansion).
Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars. Out of total 85 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 |
| Zubenelhakrabi | Zubenschamali | Zubenelgenubi | 10 |
| 2 | Brachium | 3 | – |
| – | 1 | – | – |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 |
Mythology stories…
As per Hindu mythology, there are no such known stories for this constellation.
Deep Sky Objects…
NGC 5885 || Spiral Galaxy
NGC 5890 || Lenticular Galaxy
NGC 5792 || 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 78 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 | 19 | – | 1 | – | – | |
| 19 | – | 1 | – | – |