Tag Archives: Musca Star Constellations

Musca Start Constellations Astronomy Information

Musca (fly in Latin), is a small constellation. The stars, namely, are  AlphaGamma, Beta,  Zeta2, and (probably) Eta the Muscae, plus HD 100546. The last star contains a debris disk, and another object which can be either a big planet or a brown dwarf. Among its multiple stellar systems, Theta Muscae is a triple system, and TU Muscae and  GQ Muscae are two binary stars. R Muscae and S Muscae are two classical Cepheid variables. GR Muscae is an X-ray source composed of a neutron star and another star. The three stars that host exoplanets in this constellation are  HD 111232 (orbited by a planet of 6.8 Jupiter masses),  HD 112410 (has a planet of 9.2 Jupiter masses), and HD 100546 (a blue-white Herbig Ae/Be star).

Image credits go to IAU.

As for its deep-sky objects, there are the planetary nebulae NGC 5189,  IC 4191,  NGC 4071,  Coalsack Nebula, Dark Doodad Nebula, and Engraved Hourglass Nebula. There are also the globular clusters NGC 4833 and  NGC 4372.

Engraved Hourglass Nebula captured by ESA/NASA HST.
Dark Doodad Nebulae captured with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and 135 mm f/2L lens at f/4 and ISO 3200 on an Astrotrac equatorial mount.

NGC 5189 captured by ESA/NASA HST.