COSMOS / CONSTELLATIONS / ANT
Antlia (Air Pump)
The Air Pump. IAU abbreviation Ant. One of the 14 southern constellations that Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille introduced after observing from the Cape of Good Hope in 1751–1752.
STAR CHART
KEY FACTS
- IAU abbreviation
- Ant
- Latin name / genitive
- Antlia / Antliae
- Position
- Right ascension ≈ 10 h 03 m; declination −40° to −25°
- Visibility from Türkiye
- Visible in full from anywhere in Türkiye. When it crosses the meridian its centre stands about 17° above the horizon from Ankara.
- Best time to observe
- Best placed at 21:00 Türkiye time around 19 April.
- Number of stars
- 44 stars brighter than magnitude 6.5 in the catalogue; 4 brighter than 5 and 0 brighter than 4.
INTERACTIVE LAB
Where is Antlia tonight?
The lab opens for Ankara on today’s date. Drag the time slider through the night; the “Best night” button jumps to the date when the constellation is highest at 21:00 (around 19 April). Change the city to compare the view from elsewhere in Türkiye and around the world.
MYTH, HISTORY AND OBSERVING
Lacaille, who filled the southern sky with the instruments of the Enlightenment, named this small, faint constellation after the air pump used in the experiments of Denis Papin and Robert Boyle. It has no bright stars; its leading star, Alpha Antliae, is only magnitude 4.3. From Türkiye it lies low above the southern horizon, below Hydra.
BRIGHTEST STARS
| Star | Magnitude | Distance (light-years) | Spectral type |
|---|---|---|---|
| α Ant | 4.28 | 366 | K4III |
| ε Ant | 4.51 | 711 | K3III |
| ι Ant | 4.60 | 190 | K0III |
| θ Ant | 4.78 | 339 | A7V+ |
| η Ant | 5.23 | 109 | A8IV |
| HIP 50888 | 5.34 | 135 | A8V |
| HIP 54173 | 5.43 | 518 | A0V |
| HIP 46578 | 5.49 | 790 | K2IIICNII |
Magnitude: apparent brightness; the smaller the number, the brighter the star. Distances derive from parallax measurements and are uncertain for distant stars. Source: HYG v4.1 star catalogue (CC BY-SA 4.0).
SOURCES
Position, visibility and best observing time were computed approximately for this page from the catalogue stars (Ankara, 39.9° N). The 88 constellations were adopted by the IAU in 1922; their boundaries were drawn by Eugène Delporte in 1930.