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Centred on a region of the sky without apparently bright stars, Lacerta was apparently not regarded as a constellation by ancient Western astronomers. Johannes Hevelius created the constellation in 1687 and initially named it "Stellio" (the stellion ), a lizard with star-like dorsal spots found along the Mediterranean coast.
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
Centaurus / s ɛ n ˈ t ɔːr ə s,-ˈ t ɑːr-/ is a bright constellation in the southern sky.One of the largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations.
All stars but one can be associated with an IAU (International Astronomical Union) constellation. IAU constellations are areas of the sky. Although there are only 88 IAU constellations, the sky is actually divided into 89 irregularly shaped boxes as the constellation Serpens is split into two separate sections, Serpens Caput (the snake's head) to the west and Serpens Cauda (the snake's tail ...
The constellation as a whole is often depicted as having the rough appearance of a stick-figure archer drawing its bow, with the fainter stars providing the outline of the horse's body. Sagittarius famously points its arrow at the heart of Scorpius , represented by the reddish star Antares , as the two constellations race around the sky.
Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation of Boötes. With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere and the fourth-brightest star in the night sky, [ 14 ] after Sirius (−1.46 apparent magnitude), Canopus (−0.72) and α Centauri (combined magnitude of −0.27).
The Constellations 1 – Ian Ridpath's list of constellations. Ian Ridpath's Star Tales: Constellation Mythology and History – Ian Ridpath's Star Tales. VizieR – CDS's archive of constellation boundaries. The text file constbnd.dat gives the 1875.0 coordinates of the vertices of the constellation regions, together with the constellations ...
Altair is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila. α Aquilae (Latinised to Alpha Aquilae) is the star's Bayer designation. The traditional name Altair has been used since medieval times. It is an abbreviation of the Arabic phrase النسر الطائر Al-Nisr Al-Ṭa'ir, "the flying eagle ". [22]