Chamaeleon

Chamaeleon (/kəˈmiːliən/) is a small constellation in the southern sky. It is named after the chameleon, a kind of lizard. It was first defined in the 16th century.

History

Chamaeleon was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. It first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 (or 1598) in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius. Johann Bayer was the first uranographer to put Chamaeleon in a celestial atlas. It was one of many constellations created by European explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries out of unfamiliar Southern Hemisphere stars.

Notable features

Stars

There are four bright stars in Chamaeleon. Alpha Chamaeleontis is a white-hued star of magnitude 4.1, 63 light-years from Earth. Beta Chamaeleontis is a blue-white hued star of magnitude 4.2, 27 light-years from Earth. Gamma Chamaeleontis is a red-hued giant star of magnitude 4.1, 413 light-years from Earth. The other bright star in Chamaeleon is Delta Chamaeleontis, a wide double star. The brighter star is Delta² Chamaeleontis, a blue-hued star of magnitude 4.4, 364 light-years from Earth. Delta¹ Chamaeleontis, the dimmer component, is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 5.5, 354 light-years away.

Chamaeleon (Chinese astronomy)

The modern constellation Chamaeleon is not included in the Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions system of traditional Chinese uranography because its stars are too far south for observers in China to know about them prior to the introduction of Western star charts. Based on the work of Xu Guangqi and the German Jesuit missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell in the late Ming Dynasty, this constellation has been classified as one of the 23 Southern Asterisms (近南極星區, Jìnnánjíxīngōu) under the name Little Dipper (小斗, Xiǎodǒu).

The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 蝘蜓座 (yǎn tíng zuò), meaning "the flying gecko constellation".

Stars

The map of Chinese constellation in constellation Chamaeleon area consists of :

See also

References

External links

Chamaeleon (philosopher)

Chamaeleon (or Chameleon; Greek: Χαμαιλέων; c. 350 – c. 275 BC), was a Peripatetic philosopher of Heraclea Pontica. He was one of the immediate disciples of Aristotle. He wrote works on several of the ancient Greek poets, namely:

He also wrote on the Iliad, and on Comedy (περὶ κωμῳδίας). In this last work he treated, among other subjects, of the dances of comedy. This work is quoted by Athenaeus by the title περὶ τῆς ἀρχαίας κωμῳδίας, which is also the title of a work by the Peripatetic philosopher Eumelus. It would seem also that he wrote on Hesiod, for Diogenes Laërtius says, that Chamaeleon accused Heraclides Ponticus of having stolen from him his work concerning Homer and Hesiod. The above works were probably both biographical and critical. He also wrote works entitled περὶ θεῶν, and περὶ σατύρων, and some moral treatises, περι ἡδονῆς (which was also ascribed to Theophrastus), προτρεπικόν, and περι μέθης. Of all his works only a few fragments are preserved by Athenaeus and other ancient writers.