Chamaeleon

Chamaeleon is a Southern Hemisphere constellation otherwise known as the Chameleon. It is one of twelve constellations created around 1597 by Petrus Plancius (Wikipedia)from observations by the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Chamaeleon remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union (Wikipedia).

Chamaeleon (abbrev. = Cha; genitive = Chamaeleontis) covers 132 square degrees or 0.32% of the celestial sphere making it the 79th largest constellation. It contains 31 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 6.5, the brightest star being Alpha Chamaeleontis.

For more information see the entries for Chamaeleon at Wikipedia and U. Wisconsin. For a chart of Chamaeleon, see Cha (IAU).


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