ANTLIA

'Antlia' (IPA: , ) is a relatively new constellation as it was only created in the 18th century, being too faint to be acknowledged by the ancient Greeks. The IAU adopted it as one of the 88 modern constellations. Beginning at the north, Antlia is surrounded by the sea snake Hydra, the compass Pyxis, the sails (Vela) of the mythological ship Argo and finally the centaur Centaurus.

Contents

Notable features

Notable deep sky objects

History

References

External links

Notable features

Antlia is a faint constellation void of bright stars. The brightest star is α Antliae, a magnitude 4.25^m orange giant.

Notable deep sky objects

★ NGC 2997: Spiral galaxy of type Sc which is inclined 45° to our line of sight.

★ NGC 3132: Planetary nebula, also called ''Eight-burst Nebula'' or ''Southern Ring Nebula''. At its heart is a binary star system.

★ Antlia Dwarf: This 14.8^m dwarf spheroidal galaxy belongs to our Local Group of galaxies. It was only discovered as recently as 1997.^[1]

History

The French astronomer Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille created 13 constellations for the southern sky to fill some star poor regions, among them Antlia. It was originally denominated ''Antlia pneumatica'' (Latin for the air pump invented by Robert Boyle) which is why in English this constellation is also often called Air Pump.
There is no mythology attached to Antlia as Lacaille discontinued the tradition of giving names from mythology to constellations and instead chose mostly names of instruments used in science.

References

1. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970423.html


★ Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion (2007). ''Collins Stars and Planets Guide'', HarperCollins, London. ISBN 978-0007251209.

External links

★ NightSkyInfo.com: Constellation Antlia

★ 'WIKISKY.ORG': Antlia

★ Star Tales – Antlia