The Octant
| Abbreviation: | Oct |
| Genitive: | Octantis |
| Origin: | Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, 1756 |
| Fully Visible: | 90°S – 0°N |
French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1713–1762) travelled to South Africa in the mid-eighteenth century where he constructed an observatory and spent two years observing the southern skies. Not only did he catalogue nearly 10,000 southern stars, he also surveyed 42 'nebulous' objects and devised over a dozen new constellations. Originally named l'Octans de Reflexion, this faint southern hemisphere constellation was later Latinised to just Octans. This constellation represents the navigational instrument called a reflecting octant.
Notable Features
| Visible Named Stars | ||
|---|---|---|
| σ Oct | Polaris Australis | The south celestial pole currently lies within the boundaries of this constellation, near this fifth-magnitude star. None of the brighter stars in the constellation have an official name. |
Copyright © 1995–2023 by L.M. Stockman and David Harper