IAU constellation drawing atlas
Sextans constellation
Recognise the shape, know when the whole figure is above your horizon, and practise its 3-segment line map before you step outside.
Observation card
Sextans at a glance
- Best evening month
- April
- Brightest anchor
- Brightest plotted star: magnitude 4.48
- Whole-figure latitude range
- -90° to 82°
- Declination span
- -8.1° to -0.4°
- Learning map
- 4 plotted stars · 3 segments
- Catalogue lineage
- hevelius
How to find Sextans
The complete figure is available from the South Pole northward to about 82° north, favouring southern observers. It is favourably placed during ordinary evening observing hours in April; the exact hour shifts through the month and with longitude.
its brightest plotted star, at visual magnitude 4.48, makes this a pattern best attempted under a dark, transparent sky. Start at the brightest anchor, then compare the direction and spacing of each neighbouring segment. A moonless night and an unobstructed horizon make the fainter links easier.
What this line map means
It was introduced in the seventeenth-century atlas tradition of Johannes Hevelius. Astral Nest uses a simplified IAU learning figure based on Hipparcos star positions, then projects and normalises it so the pattern is easy to trace on screen.
This diagram teaches relative shape, not absolute sky position. Rotation, scale, atmospheric extinction and local obstruction change what you see outdoors, so use a current planetarium or ephemeris for navigation.
Continue the collection
Hevelius collection: Canes Venatici, Lacerta, Leo Minor, Lynx, Scutum, Vulpecula