Crater constellation is located in the southern sky. Its name means “the cup” in Latin.
Crater is one of the Greek constellations. In mythology, it represents the cup of the Greek god Apollo. The constellation was first catalogued by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century.
Crater is relatively faint, with no stars brighter than fourth magnitude. There are also few notable deep sky objects in the constellation. Most galaxies found in Crater are magnitude 12 or fainter. One of these, the Crater 2 dwarf galaxy, is the fourth largest dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, but it went undetected until April 2016 because it is also one of the lowest surface brightness dwarfs.
FACTS, LOCATION & MAP
Crater is the 53rd constellation in size, occupying an area of 282 square degrees. It is located in the second quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ2) and can be seen at latitudes between +65° and -90°. The neighboring constellations are Corvus, Hydra, Leo, Sextans, and Virgo.
Crater belongs to the Hercules family of constellations, along with Aquila, Ara, Centaurus, Corona Australis, Corvus, Crux, Cygnus, Hercules, Hydra, Lupus, Lyra, Ophiuchus, Sagitta, Scutum, Sextans, Serpens, Triangulum Australe, and Vulpecula.
Crater has three stars with known planets and contains no Messier objects. The brightest star in the constellation is Delta Crateris, with an apparent magnitude of 3.56. There is one meteor shower associated with the constellation; the Eta Craterids.
MYTH
In Greek mythology, the Crater constellation represents the cup of the god Apollo. The cup is usually depicted as a two-handed chalice. The constellation is associated with the story of Apollo and his sacred bird, either the crow or the raven, which is represented by the neighbouring constellation Corvus.
In the story, the god Apollo is about to make a sacrifice on the altar and he needs some water to perform the ritual. The god sends the raven to promptly fetch some water in his cup, but the bird gets distracted by a fig tree and spends a few days lazily resting and waiting for the figs to ripen.
Hydra, Corvus and Crater constellations in Johannes Hevelius’ Celestial Atlas
After feasting on the figs, the raven finally brings Apollo the cup filled with water and he also brings a water snake (Hydra) as an excuse for being so late. Apollo sees through the raven’s lies and angrily casts all three – the cup (Crater), the water snake (Hydra) and the raven (Corvus) into the sky.
Apollo also casts a curse on the raven, scorching its feathers and making the bird eternally thirsty and unable to do anything about it. This, according to the myth, is how crows and ravens came to have black feathers and why they have such raspy voices.
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