Musca
The pattern of the brightest stars resembles that of Ursa Minor, in that the stars form a pattern reminiscent of a bowl with a handle. Lying south-southeast of Acrux in neighbouring Crux is Alpha Muscae. It is the brightest star in the constellation with an apparent magnitude of 2.7. Lying around 310 light-years away, it is a blue-white star of spectral type B2IV-V that is around 4520 times as luminous and 8 times as massive as the Sun. The star is a Beta Cephei variable with about 4.7 times the Sun's diameter, and pulsates every 2.2 hours, varying by 1% in brightness. A nearby star of magnitude 13 may or may not be a companion star. Marking the fly's tail is Gamma Muscae, a blue-white star of spectral type B5V that varies between magnitudes 3.84 and 3.86 over a period of 2.7 days. It is a variable of a different type, classed as a slowly pulsating B star, a type of variable. It is around five times as massive as our Sun.
Musca
Located on the border with Circinus is the unusual planetary nebula NGC 5189, estimated to be around 1750 light-years away from Earth. Its complex structure is due to multiple ejections of material from the ageing central star, which are distorted by the presence of a likely binary companion. Located 2.4° east of Eta Muscae is the magnitude-12.9 Engraved Hourglass Nebula (MyCn 18), which lies about 8000 light-years distant from Earth. To Eta's west lies IC 4191, a compact bluish planetary nebula of magnitude 10.6, thought to lie around 10,750 light-years away from Earth. West of Epsilon Muscae is NGC 4071, a large, diffuse planetary nebula of magnitude 12.7 with a magnitude 12 central star, thought to lie around 4000 light-years away from Earth. The Coalsack Nebula is a dark nebula located mainly in neighbouring Crux that intrudes into Musca. NGC 4463 is an open cluster located on its southwestern border. Around five light-years across, it is located around 3400 light-years away.