A small southern constellation, introduced by the French astronomer Nicolas
Louis de Lacaille to commemorate the reticle in the eyepiece of his small
telescope with which he measured star positions from the Cape of Good Hope in
1751–52. It consisted of a diamond shape formed by silk threads inserted into the
telescope’s eyepiece which helped him judge the position of stars as they passed through
the field of view.
In the notes to his southern star catalogue published by the French Royal Academy of Sciences
in 1756 Lacaille described it as “The little instrument used to construct this catalogue. It is constructed by the
intersection of four lines drawn from each corner of a square to the middle of
the two opposite sides.” The constellation’s brightest star, Alpha Reticuli, is of third magnitude, but is not named.
Lacaille’s Reticulum replaced a previous constellation called Rhombus introduced in 1621
by the German astronomer Isaac Habrecht II (1589–1633).
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Reticulum, shown on Bode’s Uranographia under the name Reticulus.
For Lacaille’s original depiction, see here.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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