Quadrans Muralis

Short description: Former constellation

Map of the obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis in relation to the modern constellations

Highly artistic star chart imaging Boötes with his dogs (Canes Venatici, long flowing tresses of hair (Coma Berenices), and the Quadrant at the top

Quadrans Muralis can be seen at the top left of this 1825 star chart from Urania's Mirror.

Quadrans Muralis (Latin for mural quadrant) was a constellation created by the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande in 1795. It depicted a wall-mounted quadrant with which he and his nephew Michel Lefrançois de Lalande had charted the celestial sphere, and was named Le Mural in the French atlas.^[1] It was between the constellations of Boötes and Draco, near the tail of Ursa Major,^[2] containing stars between β Bootis (Nekkar) and η Ursae Majoris (Alkaid).^[3]

Johann Elert Bode converted its name to Latin as Quadrans Muralis and shrank the constellation a little in his 1801 Uranographia star atlas, to avoid it clashing with neighboring constellations.^[1]

In 1922, Quadrans Muralis was omitted when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formalised its list of officially recognized constellations.^[4]

Notable features

The variable star BP Boötis was a member of the constellation.
39 Boötis is a double star that was transferred by Lalande into Quadrans.^[5]
The Quadrantid meteor shower is still named after the obsolete constellation.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Ridpath, Ian. "Quadrans Muralis". Star Tales. Self-published. http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/quadrans.html.
↑ Ridpath, Ian. "Lalande's Quadrans Muralis". Star Tales. Self-published. http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/quadranslalande.html.
↑ Inglis, Mike; Moore, Patrick (2015). The Observer's Year: 366 Nights of the Universe: 2015 – 2020. New York, New York: Springer. p. 178. ISBN 978-3-31918-678-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=23uBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA178.
↑ "The Constellations". International Astronomical Union. https://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations/.
↑ Smyth, William Henry (1844). A Cycle of Celestial Objects: For the Use of Naval, Military, and Private Astronomers. 2. London, United Kingdom: John W. Parker. p. 329. https://books.google.com/books?id=HnHvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA329.

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Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrans Muralis. Read more

[tirionQ-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Ridpath, Ian. "Quadrans Muralis". Star Tales. Self-published. http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/quadrans.html.

[tirionQL-2] Ridpath, Ian. "Lalande's Quadrans Muralis". Star Tales. Self-published. http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/quadranslalande.html.

[moore2015-3] Inglis, Mike; Moore, Patrick (2015). The Observer's Year: 366 Nights of the Universe: 2015 – 2020. New York, New York: Springer. p. 178. ISBN 978-3-31918-678-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=23uBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA178.

[iau-4] "The Constellations". International Astronomical Union. https://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations/.

[smyth-5] Smyth, William Henry (1844). A Cycle of Celestial Objects: For the Use of Naval, Military, and Private Astronomers. 2. London, United Kingdom: John W. Parker. p. 329. https://books.google.com/books?id=HnHvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA329.