Fornax (constellation)
| Constellation | |
|
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| Abbreviation | For |
|---|---|
| Genitive | Fornacis |
| Pronunciation | /ˈfɔːrnæks/, genitive /fɔːrˈneɪsᵻs/ |
| Symbolism | the brazier |
| Right ascension | 3 |
| Declination | −30 |
| Quadrant | SQ1 |
| Area | 398 sq. deg. (41st) |
| Main stars | 2 |
|
Bayer/Flamsteed stars |
27 |
| Stars with planets | 6 |
| Stars brighter than 3.00m | 0 |
| Stars within 10.00 pc (32.62 ly) | 2 |
| Brightest star | α For (3.80m) |
| Nearest star |
LP 944-20 (16.20 ly, 4.97 pc) |
| Messier objects | None |
| Meteor showers | None |
| Bordering constellations |
Cetus Sculptor Phoenix Eridanus |
|
Visible at latitudes between +50° and −90°. Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of December. |
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Fornax (/ˈfɔːrnæks/) is a constellation in the southern sky, partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus. Its name is Latin for furnace. It was named by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. Fornax is one of the 88 modern constellations.
The three brightest stars—Alpha, Beta and Nu Fornacis—form a flattened triangle facing south. With an apparent magnitude of 3.91, Alpha Fornacis is the brightest star in Fornax. Six star systems have been found to have exoplanets.
The French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille first described the constellation in French as le Fourneau Chymique (the Chemical Furnace) with an alembic and receiver in his early catalogue, before abbreviating it to le Fourneau on his planisphere in 1752, after he had observed and catalogued almost 10,000 southern stars during a two-year stay at the Cape of Good Hope. He devised fourteen new constellations in uncharted regions of the Southern Celestial Hemisphere not visible from Europe. All but one honoured instruments that symbolised the Age of Enlightenment. Lacaille Latinised the name to Fornax Chimiae on his 1763 chart.
The constellation Eridanus borders Fornax to the east, north and south, while Cetus, Sculptor and Phoenix gird it to the north, west and south respectively. Covering 397.5 square degrees and 0.964% of the night sky, it ranks 41st of the 88 constellations in size, The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is 'For'. The official constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 8 segments (illustrated in infobox). In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 01h 45m 24.18s and 03h 50m 21.34s, while the declination coordinates are between -23.76° and -39.58°. The whole constellation is visible to observers south of latitude 50°N.
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