An obscure constellation introduced by the
Frenchman Nicolas Louis de Lacaille after his trip to the Cape
of Good Hope to observe the southern stars in 1751–52. It
lies tucked into a bend in the river Eridanus. Lacaille
originally showed it as le Fourneau on his 1756 planisphere and
depicted it as a chemist’s furnace used for distillation.
The name was Latinized to Fornax Chimiae on the 1763 edition of
his planisphere. Bode, on his atlas, showed a far more
elaborate set-up which he called Apparatus Chemicus. Fornax
contains no stars brighter than fourth magnitude and none of
them is named.
 | ||
Fornax was portrayed as a complex-looking experiment under the name Apparatus Chemicus in the Uranographia of Johann Bode. To see Lacaille’s much simpler original, click here.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
|
|
||||
 |
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|