Norma is a constellation which lies in the southern sky, in between the constellations as Centrarus and Scorpius. The meaning of “Norma” stands as normal in the Latin, and it also represents level, the set of the square, carpenters square or a rule. This was introduced by French astronomer known as the Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the middle century of 18th. It named originally as “Equerre et la Regle after the draughtsman rule and Set Square. It is one of the small constellations and didn’t have any of the prominent stars. It is also known as the Norma cluster of the galaxies, the Nebula bipolar ant, the nebula of fine ring and even open clusters as NGC 6087 or NGC 6067 among the other objects.
Norma is also a 74th constellation in the size that occupies the area of around 165 square degrees. It is the one which is located in the third quadrant of Southern hemisphere and can also be seen at the latitudes between the +30 degree and -90 degrees. Some of its neighboring constellations are as,
This constellation is one which belongs to the family of Lacaille along with the Telescopium, Sculptor, Reticulum, Pictor, Octans, Mircoscopium, Mensa, Horologium, Fornax, Caelum, Antila. It consists of 4 stars with the known planets and has none of the Messier objects. The brightest star in the constellation is the Gamma 2 Normae, which apparent magnitude of around 4.02. There is also a meteor shower which is associated with the constellation, Gamma Normids. You must even know that Norma is visible completely in the latitudes south of the 30 degrees from the April month through June. It is the small constellation, which occupies around 165 degrees of sky.
Norma’s Size
The Norma is also the one which ranks it in the 74th size among 88 constellations in the night sky. It is the one which is bordered by the Scorpius to North, the Lupus to its northwest, Circinus to its west, Ara to its east and Triangulum Australe to its south. There are no such myths which are associated with this constellation. It is the 14 southern constellations that are named by the Nicolas Louis De Lacaille. It represents carpenter’s tool known as level or square. This constellation has reduced in its size since its invention. The stars which originally were Alpha & Beta now belong to constellation called Scorpius.
Norma’s faint stars
Norma consist of the faint stars, it includes no stars which are brighter than the four magnitudes. The brightest one is the Gamma 2 Normae, with a visual magnitude of around 4.02. It is a yellow giant star which located around 127 light years from the Earth. It is also the second brightest one with the latitude of around 4.98. It is yellow-white color supergiant star around 1436 light years from the Earth. The Gamma one and the Gamma two forms an optical double star. To naked eyes, they appear as a single star but can be separated easily with binoculars pair. The third brightest star in this constellation is known as Epsilon Normae with the magnitude of around 4.52. It is called as a binary system of star which lies around 400 light years ahead.
The Norma also consists of none of the Messier objects but includes some of the important objects of the deep sky. This Ant nebula is also the planetary nebula which is located around 8000 lights years from the Earth. This cluster is a rich cluster of the Galaxies. It is the massive galaxies cluster which is known to exist. The objects are faint extremely and can also be seen with large telescopes only.