smallest constellation

The smallest constellation of all is Crux, the Southern Cross, with a sky area of 68.45 square degrees, equivalent to 0.166% of the whole sky. The first references to it date from the European navigators who visited the southern hemisphere in the 16th century. Despite its small size, Crux is a very prominent constellation symbolic of the southern hemisphere. It contains twenty stars brighter than magnitude 5.5. Three of the four stars forming the cross are first magnitude. Crux also contains an open star cluster, the kappa Crucis cluster or the 'Jewel Box', considered by many observers to be one of the finest in the sky. The next smallest constellation, ranking 87th, is Equuleus, the Little Horse. It occupies 71.64 square degrees, or 0.174% of the sky.