Telescopium Constellation: Facts & Myths

Telescopium is a negligible constellation located in the Southern celestial hemisphere. It lies in the southern sky that may range from the South of Sagittarius and Corona Australis. According to its name, Telescopium is represented as the telescope. To be more specific about the history of this constellation, it was created by the Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, who was a French Astronomer in the 18th century. The name of this constellation has named after the telescope of a kind in honor of its invention. It is a comparatively faint one having no stars brighter than the 4th magnitude.

Apart from that, it has become a home of the Telescopium Group, which means that in a group, it has about 12 galaxies. There are comparatively a few noticeable deep sky objects.  It was taken from the Greek Word, named Telescope. The constellation was later much decreased in size by Benjamin Gould and Francis Baily.

Telescopium’s location

It is the 57th constellation according to its size. It covers an area of 252 square degrees. Its location is in the 4th quadrant of the Southern Hemisphere or SQ4. Also, it can be observed at latitudes between +40 degrees and –90 degrees. It is surrounded by some constellations in the neighborhood that are Indus, Sagittarius, Ara, Pavo, Microscopium, Corona Australis, and many others.

It was originated from the family of Lacaille of the constellation with the combination of other constellations like Mensa, Caelum, Norma, Microscopium, Fornax, Circinus, Octans, Norma, Horologium, Sculptor, Reticulum, and Pictor.

When it comes to the stars present in this constellation, there are no stars at all, even do not have any Messier object.

  • Alpha Telescopii is the brightest star with an outward magnitude of 3.49.
  • It has no meteor showers at all.

Telescopium’s story

As there is no story popular about it, the astronomer who introduced it had mapped the southern heavens from the Cape of Good Hope in the South Africa between the years 1751 and 1752. The instrument that was linked to it was a type of refractor and utilized by J.D Cassini at the observatory in Paris. According to the definition of the Lacaille, this constellation formerly expanded to the north between the Scorpius and Sagittarius. Initially, it was used to represent the peak of the tube of the telescope and mounting was removed later. The Belgian Astronomer Eugene Delporte had set the official boundaries in the year of 1930.

Primary stars and deep sky objects

This constellation has major stars, which include Alpha Telescopii, Zeta Telescopii, Epsilon Telescopii, Lambda Telescopii, Iota Telescopii, Delta Telescopii, Xi Telescopii, Eta Telescopii, Rho Telescopii, Kappa Telescopii, Nu Telescopii, Mu Telescopii, and 30 G. Telescopii, and a lot more.

When it comes to the deep sky objects, they are NGC 6850, IC 4699, NGC 6584, Telescopium Group- A S0851, NGC 6861, NGC 6868, and many others. The complete information about these stars and deep sky objects is available online. For that reason, you can look online and find out the proper information.