Musca Borealis

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Constellation Musca in Johannes Hevelius' atlas (1690)

Musca Borealis (Latin for northern fly) was a constellation located between the constellations of Aries and Perseus. It was originally called Vespa by Jakob Bartsch in 1624. Before that, it was called Apes (plural of Apis, Latin for bee) by Petrus Plancius when he created it in 1612. It was made up of a small group of stars, located between the constellations of Aries and Perseus.[1]

The renaming by Bartsch may have been intended to avoid confusion with another constellation, created by Plancius in 1598, that was called Apis by Bayer in 1603. Plancius called this earlier constellation Muia (Greek for fly) in 1612, and it had been called Musca (Latin for fly) by Blaeu in 1602, although Bayer was evidently unaware of this.[2]

It was first described as "Musca" by Hevelius in his catalogue of 1690. Subsequent astronomers renamed it into "Musca Borealis", to distinguish it from the southern fly, Musca Australis.

In 1679 Augustin Royer used these stars for his constellation Lilium (the Lily, representing the fleur-de-lis and in honour of his patron, King Louis XIV).

This constellation is no longer in use; the stars it contained are now included in Aries. The Southern Fly, Musca Australis, is now simply known as Musca.

References

  1. ↑ Nick Kanas (2012), Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography, Second Edition, Chichester, U.K., p. 121, ISBN 978-1-4614-0917-5 
  2. ↑ Kanas, p. 121.

See also


External links

Constellation history


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