The Level
| Abbreviation: | Nor |
| Genitive: | Normae |
| Origin: | Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, 1756 |
| Fully Visible: | 90°S – 39°N |
French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1713–1762) travelled to South Africa in the mid-eighteenth century where he constructed an observatory and spent two years observing the southern skies. Not only did he catalogue nearly 10,000 southern stars, he also surveyed 42 'nebulous' objects and devised over a dozen new constellations. Originally named l'Equerre et la Regle (the square and ruler), this faint southern hemisphere constellation was later Latinised to Norma et Regula and eventually shortened to just Norma. This constellation is one of a number of 'modern' constellations named after scientific instruments.
Notable Features
| Visible Named Stars | ||
|---|---|---|
| The brightest star in the constellation, γ² Nor, is fourth-magnitude and forms an optical double with fifth-magnitude γ¹ Nor. None of the visible stars in this constellation have an official name. | ||
| Deep Sky Objects | ||
| C89 | S Normae Cluster | This faint open cluster contains the Cepheid variable star S Nor. It is also catalogued as NGC 6087. |
Copyright © 1995–2023 by L.M. Stockman and David Harper