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Sky Chart and Artist Rendering of Caelum
Origin:
It is said by many that this small, faint, and difficult to identify
constellation is a pathetic excuse for a constellation, existing only to
fill the southern sky. Introduced by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1752, it
was originally denoted as Caela Sculptoris, the Sculptor's Tools but the
current name was officially accepted by the International Astronomical Union. Although the Latin name is translated as
"chisel", if Lacaille had meant to denote the asterism as the
chisel he should have used the Latin word "Scalprum".
Information:
Caelum is a Fall/Winter constellation for northern observers, directly
south on January 15 at 9 pm. It is located almost directly below
(south of) Lepus which is itself located directly
below Orion. With no star brighter than
magnitude 4.5, most northern hemisphere observers will be hard-pressed to
even find the constellation except in the darkest of skies. Caelum
is home to no naked eye objects and only 3 double stars and one galaxy are
of telescopic interest. |
