The missing parts of Lacaille’s Telescopium


The ghostly extent of Lacaille’s original, much larger, Telescopium can be traced from the lower left of this chart into Sagittarius, Scorpius, and Ophiuchus. The supporting mast extended northwards from the current boundaries of Telescopium through Corona Australis to the modern Eta (η) Sagittarii, which was Lacaille’s Beta Telescopii. The tube extended upwards and to the right past the curving tail of Scorpius and included G Scorpii (Lacaille’s Gamma Telescopii, partly obscured here by a globular cluster symbol), ending at 45 Ophiuchi (Theta Telescopii), just north of the modern Scorpius–Ophiuchus border.


From Norton’s Star Atlas 20th edition (Ian Ridpath, ed).

© Pearson Education and Charles Nix.





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