Caelum

Caelum is a faint constellation in the southern sky. It was introduced in the 1750s by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. Its name means ‘chisel’ in Latin, and it was formerly known as Caelum Sculptorium. Its main stars are visible in favourable conditions and with a clear southern horizon.

About Caelum in brief

Caelum is a faint constellation in the southern sky. It was introduced in the 1750s by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. Its name means “chisel” in Latin, and it was formerly known as Caelum Sculptorium. It is the eighth-smallest constellation, and subtends a solid angle of around 0. 038 steradians, just less than that of Corona Australis. The constellation’s brightest star, Alpha Caeli, is only of magnitude 4. 45, and only one other star, γ 1 Caeli,. is brighter than magnitude 5 . 5. Its main stars are visible in favourable conditions and with a clear southern horizon, for part of the year as far as about the 41st parallel north. These stars avoid being engulfed by daylight for some of every day to viewers in mid- and well-inhabited higher latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere.

In winter the constellation can be observed sufficiently inset from the horizons during its rising before dawn andor setting after dusk as it culminates then at around mid-day, well above the sun. It shares with Taurus, Eridanus and Orion midnight culmination in December, resulting in this fact. Covering only 125 square degrees, it ranks 81st of the 88 modern constellations in size. The International Astronomical Union adopted the three-letter abbreviation “Cae” for the constellation in 1922. Its boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are a 12-sided polygon. In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 04h 19. 5m and 05h 05. 1m.