In the 1750s the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille 1713- 1762 travelled to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to list the stars in the southern hemisphere. He would produce a catalogue of over 10,000 stars. He would also introduce 14 new constellations to the night sky; many would represent state of the art scientific instruments of the day.
Although many of the instruments he introduced to the sky in
the forms of constellations were important, most of his constellations lacked
imagination, are very dull, bland and have few if any bright stars.
Circinus was one such constellation introduced between
1750-1754 it can only be seen from the southern hemisphere. The stars of
Circinus could easily have been absorbed into the neighbouring constellations
of either Centaurus, or Triangulum Australe.
As a modern constellation there is no myth or legend
attached to it. A pair of compasses are of course very important to a navigator
trying to work out where his ship is and the route the ship is taking.
Unlike some of his constellations Circinus does at least have one moderately bright star, alpha which has a magnitude of 3.2 and is 54 light years away. It’s an A class star hotter than the Sun. There is no name for this star.
The only other star worth mentioning is beta at magnitude
4.1 this star also has no name, you would need a clear dark sky to be able to
see beta as if there is any mist or haze
in the sky and you simply would not find it. Beta is 91 light years away and is
another A class star indicating that it is hotter than the Sun.
Within the boundary of Circinus here are three open clusters
and one planetary nebula however you would need a telescope to be able to see
any of these objects.
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