Caelum

Caelum
Constellation
Caelum
AbbreviationCae
GenitiveCaeli[1]
Pronunciation/ˈsləm/, genitive /ˈsl/
Symbolismthe chisel
Right ascension04h 19.5m to 05h 05.1m [2]
Declination−27.02° to −48.74°[2]
Area125 sq. deg. (81st)
Main stars4
Bayer/Flamsteed
stars
8
Stars with planets1
Stars brighter than 3.00m0
Stars within 10.00 pc (32.62 ly)0
Brightest starα Cae (4.45m)
Messier objects0
Meteor showers1
Bordering
constellations
Columba
Lepus
Eridanus
Horologium
Dorado
Pictor
Visible at latitudes between +40° and −90°.
Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of January.

Caelum /ˈsləm/ is a faint constellation in the southern sky, introduced in the 1750s by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille and counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name means "chisel" in Latin, and it was formerly known as Caelum Sculptorium ("Engraver's Chisel"); it is a rare word, unrelated to the far more common Latin caelum, meaning "sky", "heaven", or "atmosphere".[3] It is the eighth-smallest constellation, and subtends a solid angle of around 0.038 steradians, just less than that of Corona Australis.

Due to its small size and location away from the plane of the Milky Way, Caelum is a rather barren constellation, with few objects of interest. The constellation's brightest star, Alpha Caeli, is only of magnitude 4.45, and only one other star, (Gamma) γ1 Caeli, is brighter than magnitude 5 . Other notable objects in Caelum are RR Caeli, a binary star with one known planet approximately 20.13 parsecs (65.7 ly) away; X Caeli, a Delta Scuti variable that forms an optical double with γ1 Caeli; and HE0450-2958, a Seyfert galaxy that at first appeared as just a jet, with no host galaxy visible.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference tirionconst was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference boundary was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Charlton T. Lewis, Ph.D. and. Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary Oxford University Press, 1879. Entries for caelum and caelum.