Fact sheet
- Latin name
- Fornax (For)
- Brightest star
- α Fornacis (α For)
- Relative brightness
- 3.85 mag
- Hipparcos catalogue
- HIP 14879
- Area
- 398 deg² (rank: 41 out of 88)
- Right ascension
- 1h 45m 24s to 3h 50m 21s
- Declination
- -39° 30' 46'' to -23° 45' 23''
- Neighbouring constellations
- Eridanus, Cetus, Sculptor, Phoenix
Visibility
The constellation Fornax
Fornax (chemical furnace) is a constellation of the southern hemisphere. Its brightest star is α Fornacis, which has an apparent magnitude of only 3.85 mag. The constellation lies in the bend of the constellation Eridanus and borders on Sculptor.
But even inconspicuous constellations can still hold some surprises for astronomy. From September 2003 to January 2004, for example, the Hubble Space Telescope observed a seemingly empty region in the constellation Fornax that is no larger than one tenth of the diameter of the moon as seen from Earth. In these images, astronomers were able to count almost 10,000 previously unknown galaxies: the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF). Extrapolated, this means that the constellation Fornax alone probably contains at least one billion galaxies that are still unknown to astronomers today. Fornax also contains the Fornax Cluster, the nearest large cluster of galaxies after the Virgo Cluster (a good 60 million light years away). Its brightest member, on the edge of the cluster, is the radio galaxy NGC 1316 (Fornax A).
History
The French theologian Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, who devoted his life to astronomy, geodesy and mathematics, introduced 14 new constellations of the southern hemisphere. In 1750, he set off on a four-year journey to the Cape of Good Hope in order to observe, among other things, the constellations of the southern sky. During this time, he catalogued almost 10,000 stars. Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille named most of his new constellations after technical instruments. In this way, the constellations Sculptor, Fornax, Caelum, Antlia, Pictor, Microscopium, Reticulum, Octans, Horologium, Pyxis, Mensa, Telescopium, Norma and Circinus came into being. He also divided the large ancient constellation Argo Navis into the three constellations Carina, Puppis and Vela. His star catalogue of the southern sky was published in 1763, one year after his death, under the title “Coelum Australe Stelliferum”. What his 14 new constellations have in common is that they consist of relatively faint stars.
