A Studio & Modern Equipments in the Sky

  Sculptor constellation was one of the southern constellations introduced by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century.

 Lacaille originally named it Apparatus Sculptoris, which means “the sculptor's studio,” but the name was later shortened to Sculptor.

Sculptor is a small constellation bordered by 

Aquarius and Cetus to the north, Fornax to the east, Phoenix to the south,

 Grus to the southwest, and Piscis Austrinus to the west. 

The bright star Fomalhaut is nearby

                                          Sculptor constellation is not associated with any myths.

  

                                        The constellation was depicted as a carved head 

                            lying on a tripod table, next to a sculptor’s mallet and two chisels.

Artistic rendition of the sculptor's studio,  with parts of the neighbouring constellations of Cetus and Machina Electrica, in Urania's Mirror (1825)

Between 1751 and 1752, whilst staying in Cape Town, Abbe Nicolas Lacaille mapped and named fourteen constellations in the Southern hemisphere.

 Three of these were in honour of the Arts -

 CAELUM, The Chisel, a sculptor's tool; 

 PICTOR, The Painter's Easel;

 SCULPTOR, The Sculptor (originally called L'atelier du sculpteur, i.e. sculptor's workshop).

 But the majority of these modern constellations celebrated new scientific inventions, 

 these being:

 ANTLIA, The Air Pump, which had been developed by the physicist Denis Papin (1647-1712); 

CIRCINUS, The Compasses, named for the compasses so vital to surveyors;

 FORNAX, The Furnace, a chemical instrument;

 HOROLOGIUM, The Clock, honouring the invention of Dutchman Christiaan Huygens; 

MICROSCOPIUM, The Microscope, which was to bring enormous advantages to all branches of science;

 NORMA, The Level, a set square used both by sailors as they travelled on their voyages of discovery and by the carpenters who built their vessels; 

OCTANS, The Octant, a prototype of the sextant, which had only recently (1730) been invented by John Hadley; 

PYXIS, The Compass, another instrument so essential to seafarers; 

RETICULUM, The Net, most probably a kind of grid used on the eyepiece of a telescope to aid judgement of scale and location;

 and, finally, TELESCOPIUM, The Telescope, so essential to his own studies. 

The fourteenth constellation he named MENSA, The Table Mountain, honouring the site where he had carried out his work.

Let's see one by one. 

Caelum is a small and faint constellation, visible in the southern sky in the months around November.The name  means  chisel.

The name ‘Pictor’ was given to this sky area by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. 

It is a contraction of the Latin ‘Equuleus Pictorius’, 

meaning ‘the easel and palette’.

                        Antlia is a small, faint constellation located in the southern skies. 

                                    Its name is an ancient Greek word for “the pump.”

                         The constellation was originally named Antlia Pneumatica, to                                                commemorate the invention of the air pump, which it represents.                                                                                       

                 

                    In 1756, French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille introduced the constellation of 

                 Circinus with the French name le Compas, representing a pair of dividing compasses, 

on a chart of the southern sky.

On that chart, Lacaille portrayed the constellations of

 Norma, Circinus, and Triangulum Australe, 

respectively, as a set square and ruler, a compass, 

and a surveyor's level in a set of draughtsman's instruments.

                                            

Fornax is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, 

partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus.

 Its name is Latin for furnace.

 It was named by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. 

                            

  Horologium  

( the pendulum clock, 'an instrument for telling the hour')

 is a constellation of six stars faintly visible in the southern celestial hemisphere.

Bordering constellations:

 Eridanus; Hydrus; Reticulum; Dorado; Caelum   

                

                

Microscopium is a faint constellation to the south of Capricornus.

                  

Octans is a faint constellation located in the deep southern sky.

 Its name is Latin for the eighth part of a circle, but it is named after the octant, a navigational instrument. 

                     

Pyxis is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky.

 Abbreviated from Pyxis Nautica, its name is Latin for a mariner's compass. 

         Bordering constellations: Hydra; Puppis; Vela; Antlia

Reticulum is a small, faint constellation in the 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.

The black hole,which is lurking 1,000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Telescopium,

 belongs to a system with two companion stars that are bright enough to observe with the naked eye. 

But you won't be able to see the black hole itself; the massive object has such a strong gravitational pull that nothing — not even light — can escape it.

Bordering constellations: Ara; Corona Australis; Indus; Microscopium (corner); Pavo; Sagittarius
Telescopium constellation lies in the southern sky, south of Sagittarius and Corona Australis. 

As the name indicates, Telescopum represents the telescope.

So that is the big story of modern constellations. 

Hope you enjoyed it.

Keep commenting. 

See you soon.