Noctua (nonfiction)
Noctua (Latin: owl) was a constellation located near the tail of Hydra in the Southern celestial hemisphere, but is no longer recognized.
Description
It was introduced by Alexander Jamieson in his 1822 work, A Celestial Atlas. and appeared in a derived collection of illustrated cards, Urania's Mirror.
Now designated Asterism a, the owl was composed of the stars 4 Libra and 54–57 Hydra which range from 4th to 6th magnitude.
The French astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier had introduced a bird on the water serpent's tail as the constellation Solitaire, named for the extinct flightless bird, the Rodrigues solitaire, but the image was that of a rock thrush which had been classified in the genus Turdus, giving rise to the constellation name Turdus Solitarius, the solitary thrush.
It has also been depicted as a mockingbird.
The boundaries of the constellation were defined as longitude 0° to 26°30' and from the ecliptic to 15° S.
Nonfiction cross-reference
Fiction cross-reference
External links
- Noctua (constellation)
- Noctua (constellation) @ Wikipedia
- noctua @ Wiktionary