Constellations · Constellation · Antliae · Ant
Constellation
Antlia
An air pump — the kind that Robert Boyle and Denis Papin used for their vacuum experiments. The Abbé de Lacaille honoured it in 1756.
- Genitive
- Antliae
- Area
- 239 square degrees · 62nd of 88
- Brightest star
- · magnitude 4.28
- Naked-eye stars
- 43 brighter than magnitude 6.5
- Highest at midnight
- late February
History
Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille spent 1751–52 at the Cape of Good Hope charting 10,000 southern stars. He named fourteen new constellations: thirteen after scientific or artistic instruments, and one after the mountain he worked beneath.