Telescopium Hherschelii photograph labeled

William Herschel Museum - celestial globe 2

Telescopium Herschelii (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for ''Herschel's telescope''), also formerly known as Tubus Hershelli Major, is a former

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

in the northern celestial hemisphere. Maximilian Hell established it in 1789 to honour Sir William Herschel's discovery of the planet

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars (mythology), Mars), grandfather ...

. It fell out of use by the end of the 19th century. Psi² Aurigae at

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...

4.8 was the constellation's brightest star.

History

It was one of two constellations created by Maximilian Hell in 1789 to honour the famous

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

astronomer Sir William Herschel's discovery of the planet

. Named ''Tubus Hershelli Major'' by Hell, it was located in the constellation

Auriga AURIGA (''Antenna Ultracriogenica Risonante per l'Indagine Gravitazionale Astronomica'') is an ultracryogenic resonant bar gravitational wave detector in Italy. It is at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nuclea ...

near the border to

Lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, Ontar ...

and

Gemini Gemini may refer to: Space * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac ** Gemini in Chinese astronomy * Project Gemini, the second U.S. crewed spaceflight program * Gemini Observatory, consisting of telescopes in the Northern ...

and depicted Herschel's 20-ft-long telescope. Its sibling was Tubus Hershelli Minor, which lay between Orion and Taurus. The two telescopes lay near

Zeta Tauri Zeta Tauri (ζ Tauri, abbreviated Zeta Tau, ζ Tau) is a binary star in the zodiac constellation of Taurus, the Bull. It has an apparent visual magnitude of about 3.0, which is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Parallax measure ...

, near where the planet Uranus was first spotted.

Johann Elert Bode Johann Elert Bode (; 19 January 1747 – 23 November 1826) was a German astronomer known for his reformulation and popularisation of the Titius–Bode law. Bode determined the orbit of Uranus and suggested the planet's name. Life and career Bo ...

renamed the constellation ''Telescopium Herschelii'' and omitted the smaller telescope constellation in his 1801 ''Uranographia'' star atlas. In his atlas, the constellation depicted Herschel's earlier 7-foot telescope. It was ignored by some celestial cartographers such as Argelander in 1843, Proctor in 1876, Rosser in 1879 and Pritchard in 1885, yet did appear in two works of the 1890s. However, it was noted by Allen in 1899 that it was becoming obsolete. In 1930, when the official borders of the constellations were drawn up, its stars were absorbed into Auriga, Gemini and Lynx.

Notable features

Psi² Aurigae (also known as 50 Aurigae), with an

of 4.8, was the brightest star in the constellation, Bode assigning it the designation 'a'. Located 420 ± 20

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s distant from earth, ''Note:'' see VizieR catalogu
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it is an orange giant of spectral type K3III. Other stars belonging to the constellation include Psi⁴, Psi⁵, Psi⁷, 63, 64, 65 and

66 Aurigae 66 Aurigae is a single star located approximately 880 light years away from the Sun in the northern constellation of Auriga. It is visible to the naked eye as a faint, orange hued star with an apparent magnitude of 5.23. This object i ...

, and

Omicron Geminorum Omicron Geminorum (ο Geminorum, abbreviated Omicron Gem, ο Gem), also named Jishui, is a solitary star in the constellation of Gemini. It is faintly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.90. Based upon an annua ...

. Thought to be around 4 billion years old, Psi⁵ Aurigae is a sunlike star of spectral type G0V that is around 1.07 times as massive as the Sun and 1.18 times as wide. It appears to have a circumstellar disk of dust, known as a debris disk.

References

{{navconstel-historic Former constellations

History

Notable features

See also

References