Sculptor constellation lies in the southern sky, to the south of Aquarius and Cetus.
It was one of the southern constellations introduced by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century. Lacaille originally named it Apparatus Sculptoris, which means “the sculptor’s studio,” but the name was later shortened to Sculptor.
Sculptor is a rather faint constellation, with no stars brighter than third magnitude. It contains the south galactic pole and is home to several interesting deep sky objects, including the Cartwheel Galaxy, the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253), and the Sculptor Dwarf.
FACTS, LOCATION & MAP
Sculptor is the 36th constellation in size, occupying an area of 475 square degrees. It is located in the first quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ1) and can be seen at latitudes between +50° and -90°.
The neighboring constellations are Aquarius, Cetus, Fornax, Grus, Phoenix and Piscis Austrinus.
Sculptor does not have any stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 and contains two stars located within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years) of Earth. The brightest star in the constellation is Alpha Sculptoris, with an apparent magnitude of 4.30. The nearest star is Gliese 1 (spectral class M1.5V), located at a distance of 14.22 light years from Earth.
Sculptor belongs to the Lacaille family of constellations, along with Antlia, Caelum, Circinus, Fornax, Horologium, Mensa, Microscopium, Norma, Octans, Pictor, Reticulum and Telescopium.
Sculptor has six stars with known exoplanets, HD 4208 (spectral class G7V), HD 4113 (G5V), HD 9578 (G1V), WASP-8 (G6), WASP-29 (K4V) and WASP-45 (K2V). The constellation does not contain any Messier objects and is not associated with any meteor showers.
STORY
Sculptor constellation is not associated with any myths. It is one of the southern constellations introduced by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1751-1752. On his planisphere of 1756, Lacaille named the constellation l’Atelier du Sculpteur, which is French for “the sculptor’s studio.” The constellation was depicted as a carved head lying on a tripod table, next to a sculptor’s mallet and two chisels.
The name was Latinized to Apparatus Sculptoris on Lacaille’s 1763 planisphere and in 1844 the English astronomer John Herschel proposed shortening the name to Sculptor. His suggestion was adopted by Francis Baily in his British Association Catalogue of 1845, and the constellation has been known as Sculptor ever since.
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