Crater
What is Crater?
Constellations· Spring evenings (N) · faint goblet on Hydra's back, west of Corvus. Apollo's cup resting on the back of Hydra, just west of Corvus, sketched by 4th-magnitude stars. It needs a dark sky, but the shared myth with the crow and the water snake makes it easy to remember. Zoom in west of Corvus in the Sky view.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Crater is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=con:Crater — location and time set automatically, no login.
Stars of the figure
| Star | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Labrum | 3.6 |
| Alkes | 4.1 |
| Gamma Crateris | 4.7 |
The 3 brightest of the 3 stars used in the figure (2 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.
Constellation basics
| Season | spring evenings (N) |
|---|---|
| Brightest star | Delta Crateris (3.6) |
| How to find | west of Corvus, south of Leo |
| Area rank | 88 |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Frequently asked
- When can I see Crater?
- spring evenings (N).
- How do I find Crater?
- west of Corvus, south of Leo.
- What is the brightest star in Crater?
- Labrum, magnitude 3.6.
- Where is Crater in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
The feeble giant beyond the cup — Crater II
In 2016 a new satellite galaxy of the Milky Way was found 380,000 light-years away in the direction of Crater. Named Crater II, it is more than 6,000 light-years across, large for a satellite, yet its stars are so sparse that its surface brightness is among the lowest of any known galaxy — the discovery paper called it a feeble giant. This part of the sky had been watched for centuries, but it showed itself only when the distribution of stars was combed statistically.
Its stars move very slowly, and two readings compete: the galaxy holds less dark matter than expected, or it has already been heavily stripped by the Milky Way's tides. Ultra-faint galaxies like Crater II have forced a recount of how many small galaxies hide in the universe, and a small spring constellation without a single bright star became the name of that discovery.
The constellation in depth
Crater is one of Ptolemy's 48 constellations — the cup Apollo handed to the crow, placed in the sky as part of the crow's punishment for returning late. The Babylonians saw crow and cup as a single figure, and some Greek writers called it the wine cup of Dionysus instead.
Alpha Crateris, Alkes, means "the wine cup" in Arabic, while Delta at magnitude 3.6 is the brightest star. There are no showpiece objects, but the constellation looks out toward galaxy-rich sky, so small telescopes pick up faint galaxies such as NGC 3511 and 3513.
On April–May evenings, first find the box of Corvus in the south, then look a little over 10 degrees to its west. With stars around 4th magnitude, the goblet all but vanishes under city lights. In the Sky view, select Corvus and enable constellation lines to trace it.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.