Sextans
HemisphereEquatorial
Area314 sq deg
SymbolSextant
About Sextans
The Sextant. Introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the late 1600s to commemorate the sextant he used to measure star positions, which was destroyed when his observatory burned in 1679. A faint constellation straddling the celestial equator south of Leo. Contains the Sextans Dwarf, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, and the edge-on lenticular Spindle Galaxy NGC 3115.
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