Fornax

Fornax is a Southern Hemisphere constellation otherwise known as the Furnace. It is one of fourteen new constellations created by French astronomer Abbe Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (Wikipedia) in the 1750s, from his star catalog observations from the Cape of Good Hope and published posthumously in Coelum Australe Stelliferum in 1763.Fornax remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union (Wikipedia).

Fornax (abbrev. = For; genitive = Fornacis) covers 398 square degrees or 0.96% of the celestial sphere making it the 41st largest constellation. It contains 59 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 6.5, the brightest star being Alpha Fornacis.

For more information see the entries for Fornax at Wikipedia and U. Wisconsin. For a chart of Fornax, see For (IAU).


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