Located in the southern celestial hemisphere, Crater is a small constellation with its name being the latinization of the Greek krater, a type of cup used to water down wine. Crater is 1 of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, with the a cup that has been associated with the god Apollo and is perched on the back of Hydra the water snake.

There is no star brighter than 3rd magnitude in the constellation as the 2 brightest stars are Delta Crateris with magnitude 3.56 and Alpha Crateris with magnitude 4.07. Both stars are aging orange giant stars that are cooler and larger than the Sun. 7 star systems have been found to host planets. A few notable galaxies, including Crater 2 and NGC 3981, and a famous quasar lie within the borders of the constellation.

Covering 282.4 square degrees and hence 0.685% of the sky, Crater ranks 53rd of the 88 constellations in regards to area. Its position in the southern celestial hemisphere means that the whole constellation is visible to observers south of 65°N.

	Applicable Information
Visibility In Pacific Northwest	November to April
Best Times To View	April
Right Ascension	11h
Declination	−16°
Area	282 square degrees
Main Stars	4
Brightest Object	δ Crt
Meteor showers	Eta Craterids
Messier objects	0
Neighboring Constellations	Leo, Sextans, Hydra, Corvus, Virgo

Mythology

In the Babylonian star catalogues dating from at least 1100 BC, the stars of Crater were possibly incorporated with those of the crow Corvus in the Babylonian Raven.

Crater is identified with a story from Greek mythology in which a crow or raven serves Apollo, and is sent to fetch water, but it delays its journey as it finds some figs and waits for them to ripen before eating them. Finally it retrieves the water in a cup, and takes back a water snake, blaming it for drinking the water.

According to the myth, Apollo saw through the fraud, and angrily cast the crow, cup, and snake, into the sky. The 3 constellations were arranged in such a way that the crow was prevented from drinking from the cup, and hence seen as a warning against sinning against the gods.

In Chinese astronomy, the stars of Crater are located within the constellation of the Vermillion Bird of the South. They depict, along with some stars from Hydra, Yi, the Red Bird’s wings. Yi also denotes the 27th lunar mansion. Alternatively, Yi depicts a heroic bowman; his bow composed of other stars in Hydra. In the Society Islands, Crater was recognized as a constellation called Moana-‘ohu-noa-‘ei-ha’a-moe-hara, which means “vortex-ocean-in-which-to-lose-crime.”

Stars

The German cartographer Johann Bayer used the Greek letters alpha through lambda to label the most prominent stars in the constellation. Bode added more to this list, but only Psi Crateris remains in use. 

John Flamsteed gave 31 stars in Crater and the segment of Hydra immediately below Crater Flamsteed designations, naming the resulting constellation Hydra et Crater. But most of these stars lie in Hydra. The three brightest stars in Crater Delta, Alpha and Gamma Crateris—form a triangle located near the brighter star Nu Hydrae in Hydra. Within the constellation’s borders, there are 33 stars brighter than or equal to apparent magnitude 6.5.

The Crater 2 dwarf is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, which is located 380,000 light-years from the Sun. 

NGC 3511 is a spiral galaxy seen edge-on, as a magnitude 11.0. NGC 3513, a barred spiral galaxy. NGC 3981 is a spiral galaxy with two wide and perturbed spiral arms. It is a member of the NGC 4038 Group, which, along with NGC 3672 and NGC 3887, are part of a group of 45 galaxies known as the Crater Cloud within the Virgo Supercluster.

RX J1131 is a quasar located 6 billion light-years away from the Sun and was the first black hole whose spin has ever been directly measured.[GRB 011211, a gamma-ray burst detected in 2001 became the longest GRB ever detected.

Make sure to check out other articles on the site, including a brief introduction to constellations, other constellation articles, and more!