Tuesday 15 March 2016

Astrognome Scrapbook Nicolas Louis de Lacaille

Nicolas Louis de Lacaille


On March 15th 1715 the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille who mapped the southern skies was born.


He led an expedition (1750–54) to the Cape of Good Hope, where he measured the positions of nearly 10,000 stars. After his death his Coelum Australe Stelliferum (“Star Catalog of the Southern Sky”) was published in 1763.

He created the following constellations in the southern hemisphere:

Antlia the Air Pump
Caelum the Sculptor’s Tool
Circinus the Compasses
Fornax the Furnace
Horologium the Clock
Mensa the Table
Microscopium the Microscope
Norma the Rule
Octans the Octant
Pictor the Painter
Pyxis the Mariner’s Compass
Reticulum theNet
Sculptor the Sculptor
Telescopium the Telescope


Nicolas Louis de Lacaille died on 21st March 1762. 

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