Caelum constellation is located in the southern hemisphere. Its name is the Latin word for “the chisel.”
The small, faint constellation was originally named Caela Sculptoris, or the sculptor’s chisel. Along with 13 other constellations, it was created by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century.
Caelum does not contain any prominent deep sky objects and has only two stars brighter than fifth magnitude. The constellation is home to the faint eclipsing binary star RR Caeli and the unusual quasar HE0450-2958, notable for appearing to lack a host galaxy.
FACTS, LOCATION & MAP
Caelum is the eighth smallest constellation in the sky, occupying an area of only 125 square degrees. It lies in the first quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ1) and can be seen at latitudes between +40° and -90°.
The neighboring constellations are Columba, Dorado, Eridanus, Horologium, Lepus, and Pictor.
Caelum does not have any stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 or located within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years) of Earth. The brightest star in Caelum is Alpha Caeli. The nearest star, HD 30876, belongs to the spectral class K2V and lies at a distance of 57.86 light years from Earth. Caelum does not contain any Messier objects. There are no major meteor showers associated with the constellation.
Caelum belongs to the Lacaille family of constellations, along with Antlia, Circinus, Fornax, Horologium, Mensa, Microscopium, Norma, Octans, Pictor, Reticulum, Sculptor, and Telescopium.
Caelum has one star with a confirmed exoplanet, the eclipsing binary RR Caeli. The giant planet in the star system has a mass about four times that of Jupiter and orbits the binary pair with a period of 11.9 years. The deep sky objects in the constellation include the galaxies NGC 1679, IC 2106 and NGC 1571.
STORY
There are no myths associated with Caelum. It is one of the constellations introduced by the French astronomer Lacaille in the 18th century. Lacaille named his constellations after various instruments and tools, not stories and myths.
Caelum is depicted as a sculptor’s chisel. It first appeared in Lacaille’s map of the southern stars published in 1756, as “les Burins,” a pair of crossed burins connected by a ribbon. (Burins are sharp engraving tools.) In Johann Bode’s star atlas Uranographia, the constellation still had the longer name, Caela Scalptoris.
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