Libra

Libra is a Southern Hemisphere constellation otherwise known as the Scales. It is one of the 48 Greek constellations originally described by the 2nd century astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (Wikipedia). Libra remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union (Wikipedia).

Libra (abbrev. = Lib; genitive = Librae) covers 538 square degrees or 1.30% of the celestial sphere making it the 29th largest constellation. It contains 83 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 6.5, the brightest star being Zubeneshamali. See the Libra Star Chart for a figure illustrating this constellation including the identification of its brighter stars.

For more information see the entries for Libra at Wikipedia and U. Wisconsin. For a chart of Libra, see Lib (IAU).

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