One of the southern constellations
representing scientific instruments that were invented in
1751–52 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de
Lacaille. In this case the instrument concerned is an early
form of compound microscope, i.e. one that uses more than one
lens. Lacaille described it as consisting of “a tube
above a square box”, although Bode added a slide carrier
containing specimens when he depicted it in his Uranographia atlas
of 1801. Microscopium lies south of the zodiacal constellation
Capricornus in an area of sky containing only fifth-magnitude
stars. The only remarkable thing about it is that anyone could
imagine a separate constellation here.
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Microscopium shown in the Uranographia of Johann Bode (1801). For Lacaille’s depiction of the constellation, click here.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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