Constellation, Sextant
Sextans
A faint figure south of Leo that honours the sextant Johannes Hevelius used to measure star positions, an instrument lost when his house burned in 1679.
From New York on October 13, 2026, the centre of Sextans rises at 3:49 AM, is highest at 9:41 AM (47° above the horizon in the S) and sets at 3:38 PM.
In the 3D sky
The sky over New York turned towards Sextans. Drag to look around.
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Evening visibility over the year
Height of the constellation’s centre above the horizon at 10 pm local time on the 15th of each month, from New York. Above about 30° it is well placed.
Name and history
Johannes Hevelius created this figure as Sextans Uraniae, the sextant of Urania, the Muse of astronomy. It remembers the instrument he used to measure the positions of stars. In 1679 a fire at his home in Danzig, now Gdańsk, destroyed it along with his other instruments. In an earlier book Hevelius had included an engraving of himself at work with the sextant on his rooftop observatory. He listed the constellation in his catalogue of 1687, and it appeared in his atlas of 1690.
Hevelius kept measuring stars by eye with his sextant all his life, though he used telescopes for the Moon and planets. Perhaps he formed Sextans from such faint stars to show how sharp his eyes were, as he did with Lynx. John Flamsteed shortened the name to Sextans in 1725. Its stars received Greek letters only in 1879, from the American astronomer Benjamin Gould. There is no myth behind it.
Sources: Ian Ridpath, Star Tales: Sextans
Brightest stars
| Star | Designation | Magnitude | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| α Sex | α Sex | 4.48 | 283 light-years |
Facts
| Area | about 312 square degrees (47 of 88) |
|---|---|
| IAU abbreviation | Sex |
| Sky | Near the celestial equator, visible from both hemispheres |
| Origin | Introduced as Sextans Uraniae in Hevelius’s star catalogue of 1687 and drawn in his atlas published in 1690 |
| Stars brighter than magnitude 5 | 1 |
| Centre (J2000) | 10.3 h, -3° |
Deep-sky objects
Galaxies, clusters and nebulae brighter than magnitude 9, from the OpenNGC catalogue. Most need binoculars or a telescope and a dark sky.
No deep-sky object brighter than magnitude 9.
Boundaries: International Astronomical Union, via Astronomy Engine. Areas are computed from the boundaries by sampling (within about one percent). Names and lines: Stellarium. Stars: HYG Database. Deep-sky objects: OpenNGC. Calculated with Astronomy Engine, an open-source library verified against the US Naval Observatory and NASA JPL. Data sources
How to use this page
Choose your place and a night at the top. The answer and the 3D view show where the constellation is, when it is highest and whether it rises at all from where you are. The chart shows its stars and lines, and the tables list its brightest stars and the deep-sky objects inside it.
Frequently asked questions
When is a constellation best seen?
When it is highest in a dark sky, which the page gives for the night you pick. Each constellation is best placed in a particular season, because the stars rise about four minutes earlier every night.
Why can I not see a constellation from my place?
Constellations far south of the celestial equator never rise from northern places, and those far north never rise from southern ones. The page says when this is the case.
What are the constellation boundaries?
The International Astronomical Union divides the sky into 88 areas with official boundaries. The stick figures are only a drawing aid, the boundaries say which constellation a point in the sky belongs to.
Related guides
- How to learn the constellationsStart with one bright pattern you cannot miss, use it as a signpost to its neighbours, and come back a month later: the sky will have turned, and you will know a little more of it.
- Altitude and azimuth: finding things in the skyTwo angles tell you exactly where to look: which direction, and how high.
- Light pollution and dark skies: the Bortle scaleFrom a city centre you can count a few dozen stars. From a truly dark site you can count a few thousand, with the Milky Way bright enough to cast a shadow. The Bortle scale puts a number on the difference.
- Binoculars for stargazing: what to buy and what to look atA pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars shows the craters of the Moon, the moons of Jupiter, dozens of star clusters and the Andromeda Galaxy, for a fraction of the cost of a telescope.