Table Mountain (constellation)
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Table Mountain constellation |
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| Latin name | canteen |
| Latin genitive | Mensae |
| Abbreviation | Men |
| Right ascension | 03 h 12 m 56 s to 07 h 36 m 52 s |
| declination | −85 ° 15 ′ 41 ″ to −69 ° 44 ′ 48 ″ |
| surface | 153.484 deg² rank 75 |
| Completely visible | 4.8 ° N to 90 ° S |
| Observation time for Central Europe | not visible |
| Number of stars brighter than 3 mag | 0 |
| Brightest star (size) | α Mensae (5.09) |
| Meteor streams | |
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Neighboring constellations ( clockwise from north ) |
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| swell | IAU , |
The mesa ( latin / fachsprachlich refectory ) is a constellation of the southern sky.
description
Mensa is the darkest and therefore a completely inconspicuous constellation near the southern celestial pole . It is the only one of the 88 recognized constellations that does not contain a star that is brighter than the 5th magnitude .
North of Mensa is the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a smaller companion galaxy to our Milky Way .
history
The name of the constellation comes from the French astronomer Lacaille , who observed the southern skies from the Cape of Good Hope from 1751 to 1753 . He named the faint group of stars in memory of Table Mountain (Latinized as Mons Mensa ) in South Africa, which is often covered by clouds, and included it in his work Coelum australe stelliferum .
Celestial objects
Stars
Due to the southern location, the stars have no Flamsteed designation.
| B. | Names or other designations | size | Lj | Spectral class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| α | HR 2261 | 5.07 m | 33.1 | G5 V |
| γ | HR 1953 | 5.18 m | 101 | K4 III |
| β | HR 1677 | 5.30 m | 642 | G8 III |
| θ | HR 2689 | 5.45 m | 356 | B9 V |
| κ | HR 2125 | 5.46 m | 270 | B9 V |
| η | HR 1629 | 5.47 m | 712 | K6 III |
| μ | HR 1541 | 5.53 m | 483 | B9 IV |
| ε | HR 2919 | 5.54 m | 466 | K2 III |
| ζ | HR 2995 | 5.61 m | 404 | A5 III |
| π | HR 2022 | 5.67 m | 60 | G0 V |
| δ | HR 1426 | 5.66 m | 408 | K2 III |
| ν | HR 1456 | 5.77 m | 175 | F0 V |
| ξ | HR 1716 | 5.84 m | 349 | G8 III |
| ι | HR 1991 | 6.04 m | 796 | B8 III |
| HR 2059 | 6.18 m | 349 | A1 V | |
| λ | HR 2062 | 6.18 m | 386 | K0 III |
α Mensae, the brightest star in the canteen, only has an apparent brightness of 5.08 m . In the night sky it appears as a faint asterisk. It is a yellowish star of the spectral class G5 V with physical properties similar to our sun. The star is 33 light years away and gives an impression of what our own solar system would look like from this distance.
Foggy objects
| NGC | other | size | Type | Surname |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LMC | 5 m | Galaxy | Large Magellanic Cloud | |
| 1841 | 12.0 m |
Part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (English: Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)) is located in the cafeteria, the other part of the swordfish .
The Large Magellanic Cloud is the brightest and largest foggy object in the night sky. It has an extension of 5 times 6 °. It is a smaller companion galaxy to our Milky Way at a distance of 180,000 light years. It contains several star clusters and nebulae that can be observed with small telescopes .
In the cafeteria there is also the faint globular cluster NGC 1841 .
