A little ramble through Caelum the Chisel

If I am being generous, I would say that the constellation of Caelum is rather faint, if I am being honest, it is one of the most obscure of all the 88 constellations. It is one of the 14 constellations created by the French astronomer Nicola Louis de Lacaille 1713-1762, it first appeared in his catalogue in 1763, and it is one of 14 constellations that he created while he was working in South Africa.

Originally called Caelum Sculptorium the Engravers’s Chisel, today it is referred to as just Caelum. It is a winter constellation that can be seen very low in the sky as seen from Britain below Orion the Hunter and to the east of the constellation of Lepus the Hare.

 It was apparently Francis Baily 1774-1844 who shortened the name of the constellation to the one we use today. Francis Baily is famous for his observations of the eclipse of the Sun in 1836 when he saw light beams coming through around the edge of the Moon through the canyons in between the mountains. He described them as bead of light and the term Bailys Beads has been used ever since.

I mentioned that is a dull constellation there are no bright stars. In fact, the brightest alpha is a magnitude 4.5 F class star meaning that it is hotter than the Sun and is 65 light years away. It is a double star, its companion of a faint red dwarf star. All the other stars in Caelum are fainter than alpha. This means that the slightest hint of mist or any light pollution or moonlight means it is impossible to find the constellation at all. An astronomy star map will show you where it is in the sky, but I doubt you will see any stars unless you use binoculars or telescopes to look for Caelum.

I can’t even say that there are any clusters of star or galaxies objects in Caelum worth looking at with telescopes because there really aren’t.

I have never been able to see any stars in this constellation even when observing from the south of England. I suppose if the sky was at its best and you knew exactly where you were looking you might just glimpse Caelum, but it is not worth the effort.

Even astronomers in the southern hemisphere would hardly give the area a second glance.

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