Pictor

By BrightK self-checked Published 2026-09-04 Updated 2026-10-18 Editorial policy

• Constellations
• In the sky now

What is Pictor?

Constellations· Southern summer · right beside Canopus. Pictor is Lacaille's tribute to the painter's easel. Its stars are faint, but Beta Pictoris, a young star whose dust disk and planets have been photographed, is a leading target for studying how planets form.

Stars of the figure

The 1 brightest of the 2 stars used in the figure (1 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.

Deep-sky objects near this constellation

Constellation basics

Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.

Kapteyn's Star, the fast traveller in Pictor

Pictor holds the star with the second-fastest motion across the night sky. It is Kapteyn's Star, a red dwarf about 13 light-years away. It shifts by 8.6 arcseconds a year. That is a tiny angle, but photographs taken a few decades apart show clearly that it has moved. Only Barnard's Star in Ophiuchus moves faster.

Kapteyn's Star moves so quickly because it orbits the Milky Way differently from the Sun. The Sun and most other stars travel around the galaxy's disk in the same direction, but this star goes the opposite way. So as it passes near the Sun, the difference in their speeds is large.

Astronomers think this star may not have been born in the Milky Way at all. One idea is that long ago our galaxy swallowed a small galaxy, and Kapteyn's Star came from it. The same idea treats the globular cluster Omega Centauri as the leftover core of that small galaxy. It is not settled yet, but the motion of a single star has become a clue to the long history of our galaxy.

The constellation in depth

Pictor was drawn by Lacaille in the 1750s, and its first name was the Painter's Easel. An easel is the stand that holds a canvas while an artist paints. The name was later shortened to simply the Painter. It sits right beside Canopus, the second-brightest star in the night sky, so it is easy to locate, but its own stars are only 3rd and 4th magnitude, so the picture takes imagination.

Pictor's most famous star is Beta Pictoris, about 63 light-years away. It is a young star, only about 20 million years old. In 1984 a disk of dust around it was photographed for the first time. A dust disk is leftover planet-building material circling a star, and our own solar system probably looked like this when it was very young.

Later, two planets heavier than Jupiter were found around Beta Pictoris and confirmed in images. Astronomers have even seen signs of comets diving close to the star and evaporating inside the disk. That makes it a good example for studying how a planetary system is born. Astronomers think small bodies are still colliding inside this disk, supplying material for building planets.

Pictor lies deep in the southern sky, so it is effectively hidden from Europe and most of the United States. From the southern hemisphere, find it on December to February evenings as a faint line of stars running southwest from Canopus. In the Sky view, set Sydney on a January evening and zoom in beside Canopus. Canopus is bright enough to be a good guide, but Pictor's own stars are faint, so turning on the constellation lines helps.

Frequently asked

When can I see Pictor?

Pictor is best seen in Dec–Feb evenings; only its northern edge rises from New York; not visible from London.

How do I find Pictor?

To find Pictor, look for a faint line of stars southwest of Canopus.

What is the brightest star in Pictor?

The brightest star in Pictor is Beta Pictoris, at magnitude 3.9.

Related

Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.