Constellation Chart

A minor constellation of Caelum (Chisel) is squeezed between Columba and Eridanus at the lower southern sky in winter. The constellation has a principal star (alpha Cae) with only fourth magnitude and only 14 stars visible with naked eyes. Lacaille invented the constellation in 1763. Perhaps he made the strange constellation of tool to fill up the void in sky for the convenience.

Viewed relative to the Galaxy as a whole, Caelum's sparseness is easy to understand: it describes a slice of sky that looks out into empty intergalactic space.

Galaxies In Caelum

NGC 1571

This small galaxy is NG1571.

NGC 1679

Caelum has no deep sky objects (at least mentioned in Tirion's Sky Atlas). Burnham indicates one spiral galaxy, NGC 1679, which would be about two degrees south of zeta Caeli.

Galaxy NGC 1679 In the constellation of Caelum. The galaxies Co-ordinates are Right Ascension: 04 49 55.4 & Declination: -31 58 03. The photo magnitude of the galaxy is 13.5p.

IC 2106

Galaxy IC 2106 In the constellation of Caelum The galaxies Co-ordinates are Right Ascension: 04 56 36.0 & Declination: -28 30 00.