Constellations

The Deep Photographic Guide to the
Constellations

The constellations of the month
APRIL

Chamaeleon, Musca

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Names:

Latin: Chamaeleon (Cha), Musca (Mus)
English: Chameleon, Fly Spanish: Camaleón, Mosca
German: Chamäleon, Fliege French: Caméléon, Mouche
The constellation Chamaeleon can be seen in the lower right and Musca, the fly, in the upper left of the photography (see lines). This is a very southern sky field already close to the south celestial pole. You may find Musca just south of the prominent Southern Cross. Musca's shape is easily pointed out and has star magnitudes around three and less bright. Chamaeleon only consists of stars fainter than 4th magnitude.

Best observing time in mid of April is about 22:00 (10:00 pm) local time. But since it is quite close to the celestial pole you may easily spot the field from February to August. From most southern sites it is even circumpolar. The declination of the two constellations ranges from -83o to -64o.

In Musca the visible milky way reaches its most southern position. There are several interesting deep sky objects in the shown field of view. Dark lanes of dust intersect the star fields even further out from the plane of our galaxy into Chamaeleon.

© all photographs taken by Till Credner and Sven Kohle