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There were originally two such
constellations, both introduced in 1789 by the Hungarian-born
astronomer Maximilian Hell, director of the Vienna Observatory,
in commemoration of William Herschel’s discovery of the
planet Uranus. Hell first showed them on charts contained in
the Ephemerides astronomicae (a yearly almanac) for the year 1790
published by the Vienna Observatory in 1789. The two
constellations flanked the area in which the new planet was
found. Tubus Herschelii Major, as Hell called it, represented
Herschel’s 20-ft-long (6-m) telescope and lay between
Gemini and Auriga. Tubus Herschelii Minor, crammed awkwardly
between Orion and the head of Taurus, represented
Herschel’s 7-ft (2-m) reflector.
Bode reduced the constellations to one in
his Uranographia atlas of 1801 under the name Telescopium
Herschelii. Bode located this constellation where Hell had
placed Tubus Herschelii Major, and he depicted the 7-ft
telescope with which Herschel actually made the discovery of
Uranus.
Telescopium Herschelii, depicting the reflecting telescope with which William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus, on the Uranographia atlas of Johann Bode.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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