Caelum
Sign in to saveCaelum is a faint constellation in the southern sky, introduced in the 1750s by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille and counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name means "chisel" in Latin, and it was formerly known as Caelum Sculptorium ("Engraver's Chisel"); it is a rare word, unrelated to the far more common Latin caelum, meaning "sky", "heaven", or "atmosphere". It is the eighth-smallest constellation, and subtends a solid angle of around 0.038 steradians, just less than that of Corona Australis.
AI overview
Caelum is a faint constellation in the southern sky named after a chisel, created by astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 1750s and now recognized as one of the 88 modern constellations. Though it is one of the smallest constellations in the sky, it remains part of the standard celestial map used by astronomers and stargazers today.
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Key facts
- Constellation.name
- Caelum
- Constellation.abbreviation
- Cae
- Constellation.genitive
- Caeli
- Constellation.pronounce
- , genitive
- Constellation.symbolism
- the chisel
- Constellation.RA
- –
- Constellation.dec
- –
- Constellation.areatotal
- 125
- Constellation.arearank
- 81st
- Constellation.numbermainstars
- 4
- Constellation.numberbfstars
- 8
- Constellation.numberbrightstars
- 0
- Constellation.numbernearbystars
Article
8 sectionsContents
- History
- Characteristics
- Features
- Stars
- Deep-sky objects
- Notes
- References
- External links
Caelum is a faint constellation in the southern sky, introduced in the 1750s by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille and counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name means "chisel" in Latin, and it was formerly known as Caelum Sculptorium ("Engraver's Chisel"); it is a rare word, unrelated to the far more common Latin caelum, meaning "sky", "heaven", or "atmosphere". It is the eighth-smallest constellation, and subtends a solid angle of around 0.038 steradians, just less than that of Corona Australis.
Due to its small size and location away from the plane of the Milky Way, Caelum is a rather barren constellation, with few objects of interest. The constellation's brightest star, Alpha Caeli, is only of magnitude 4.45, and only one other star, (Gamma) γ1 Caeli, is brighter than magnitude 5 . Other notable objects in Caelum are RR Caeli, a binary star with one known planet approximately away; X Caeli, a Delta Scuti variable that forms an optical double with γ1 Caeli; and HE0450-2958, a Seyfert galaxy that at first appeared as just a jet, with no host galaxy visible.