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Halley sailed to the island of St Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean in 1676 to
observe the southern stars. He presented his results to the Royal Society in
London on his return in 1678 and the following year published his catalogue of
southern stars, Catalogus Stellarum Australium, with an accompanying map. As tabulated by Halley, Robur Carolinum consisted of
12 stars, the brightest of them being the second-magnitude star we now know as
Beta Carinae. The fourth star in the constellation was the peculiar eruptive
variable Eta Carinae; Halley’s catalogue is the first record of it.
Halley described his new constellation as being a “perpetual memory” of the King, but it turned out to be less permanent than either of them would
have hoped. Robur Carolinum was rejected by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis
de Lacaille, who mapped the southern stars more comprehensively 75 years after
Halley, and most astronomers followed suit, although Bode included it on his
atlas of 1801 as Robur Caroli II.
Right: Robur Carolinum shown under the name Robur Caroli II in the Uranographia
of Johann Bode. It was positioned where the hull of Argo Navis (right of
picture) was cut off, a place occupied on other maps by either the Clashing Rocks or clouds.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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