Reticulum

Coordinates: Sky map 04h 00m 00s, −60° 00′ 00″
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For other uses, see Reticulum (disambiguation).
Reticulum
Constellation
23° and −90
°.
Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of December.

Reticulum is a small, faint

southern sky. Its name is Latin for a small net, or reticle—a net of crosshairs at the focus of a telescope eyepiece that is used to measure star positions.[2] The constellation is best viewed between October and December, and save for one main star visible in ideal conditions, cannot be seen from north of the 30th parallel north.[3]

History

A constellation in this area was introduced by

Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the eighteenth century; during his stay at the Cape of Good Hope, he named the constellation le Réticule Rhomboide to commemorate the reticle in his telescope eyepiece.[5] The name was later Latinized to Reticulum in his star catalogue Coelum Australe Stelliferum. In 1810, the stars of Reticulum were used by William Croswell to produce the constellation Marmor Sculptile, which represented the bust of Christopher Columbus, but this did not catch on among astronomers.[6]

The constellation Reticulum became officially recognized during the First General Assembly of the

Eugène Delporte along arcs of right ascension and declination for epoch 1875. These were published in 1930 in the Delimination Scientifique des Constellations at the behest of the IAU.[7][8]

Features

See also: List of stars in Reticulum
The constellation of Reticulum, the net, as it can be seen by the naked eye

Only two of the stars in this constellation are brighter than

visual magnitude 5: Alpha (α) and Beta (β) reticuli. The reddish star R Reticuli is a Mira variable. This variable was discovered by C. Ragoonatha Chary at the Madras Observatory in India.[9]

The

planetary companion was announced, orbiting the star ε Reticuli A.[10]

Betty and Barney Hill
named it as the home of their abductors.

In 2005, a type Ia supernova was discovered in the spiral galaxy NGC 1559, located in the constellation.[11]

The dwarf galaxy Reticulum II is enriched in r-process heavy elements.[12]

The Horologium-Reticulum Supercluster is a galaxy supercluster that ranges from 700 million to 1.2 billion light-years from Earth.

See also

  • Reticulum (Chinese astronomy)

References

  1. ^ a b IAU, The Constellations, Reticulum.
  2. ISBN 0-7188-2695-7
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-387-72850-3
    .
  4. ^ AtlasCoelestis.com: "Jacob Bartsch ― Usus Astronomicus Planisphaerii Stellati Argentoratum (Strasburgo) 1624"
  5. ^ Ian Ridpath's Star Tales – Reticulum
  6. ISBN 978-0-387-71668-8
    .
  7. ^ Kanas (2007:308–309).
  8. ISBN 0-521-53551-4
    .
  9. arXiv:0908.3081v1 [astro-ph.SR
    ].
  10. S2CID 16950822
    .
  11. ^ ESO Public Affairs Department. "Celestial Blast in Bleak Reticulum". European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO). Archived from the original on 2013-02-18. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  12. S2CID 205248401
    .

Works cited

  • "Reticulum". The Constellations. International Astronomical Union.
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