One of the best-known of the abandoned
constellations, because it has given its name to the annual
meteor shower known as the Quadrantids that radiates from this
area every January. The constellation was invented by the
French astronomer Joseph Jérôme de Lalande to
commemorate the wall-mounted instrument which he used for
measuring star positions (“muralis” is Latin for
“wall”). It was first pictured on the 1795 edition
of the Atlas Céleste of Jean Fortin, another Frenchman; this
edition was edited by Lalande and his colleague Pierre
Méchain. Quadrans Muralis occupied what is now the
northern part of Boötes, near the tip of the
Plough’s handle.
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Quadrans lay just above the outstretched arm of Boötes, near the tail of
Ursa Major. It is depicted here on the
Uranographia of Johann Bode (1801).
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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