Microscopium

Microscopium is a Southern Hemisphere constellation otherwise known as the Microscope. 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.Microscopium remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union (Wikipedia).

Microscopium (abbrev. = Mic; genitive = Microscopii) covers 210 square degrees or 0.51% of the celestial sphere making it the 66th largest constellation. It contains 43 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 6.5, the brightest star being Gamma Microscopii.

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


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