Noctua (constellation)

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Card 32 of Urania's Mirror depicts Noctua the owl, perched on the tail of Hydra, the serpent.

Noctua was a constellation located near the tail of Hydra in the Southern celestial hemisphere, but is no longer recognized.[1] 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.[2] Now designated Asterism a, the owl was composed of the stars 4 Libra and 54–57 Hydra which range from 4th to 6th magnitude.[3]

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 it as a mockingbird.[4] The boundaries of the constellation were defined as longitude 0° to 26°30' and from the ecliptic to 15° S.[1]

References

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External links