Caelum

Transit Date of principal star:
1 December

Like many southern hemisphere constellations, Caelum was introduced by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the mid-eighteenth century, designed to fill in the southern hemisphere. The word is ambiguous; in Latin caelum means both "the heavens" and "burin", which is an instrument used for engraving on copper and fine metals. It is this instrument that Lacaille had in mind when he named the constellation. In fact Lacaille drew two of these instruments in his original map, calling the constellation "Les Burins". Only one has remained. Caelum is located between Eridanus and Columba in a particularly bleak part of the southern hemisphere. There are few Bayer stars here, and none brighter than fourth magnitude. Double stars: Alpha Caeli has an extremely faint companion: 4.5, 13; PA 121º, separation 6.6". Gamma Caeli also has a rather faint companion: 4.6, 8.0; PA 308º, separation 2.9". Variable stars: R Caeli is a Mira-type long period variable, from 6.7 to 13.7 every 391 days. It's located one degree south of beta Caeli, and several arc minutes west. X Caeli is a delta Scuti variable, ranging from 6.3 to 6.4 every 3h 14.7m. Once labelled gamma2 Caeli, the star now generally goes under its variable designation. Deep Sky Objects: Caelum has no deep sky objects (at least mentioned in Tirion's Sky Atlas). Burnham indicates one spiral galaxy, NGC 1679, which would be about two degrees south of zeta Caeli. A printed version of this web site ["The Constellations Pocket Guide"] is available, covering all 88 constellations and their graphics. Return to the previous page: Or go to the Main Menu All files associated with The Constellations Web Page are © 2000 by Richard Dibon-Smith.