Constellation Chart

The Chameleon

A group of dim stars lying not far from the Southern Celestial Pole, close to the relatively bright Miaplacidus in Carina.

Myth

Chamaeleon first appeared in Bayer's Uranometria of 1603. Chameleons are family of lizards found in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Madagascar seems particularly blest with them (about 35 species), and it may be these to which the constellation refers. Chameleons can change color, and have toes fused into groups of two and three, teeth attached to the edge of the jaw, and a long tongue. Like its namesake in the animal kingdom, this constellation does not stand out.

Galaxies In Chamaeleon

NGC3195

One of Dreyer's remarkable objects, Caldwell 109 (NGC3195) is a planetary nebula described as fairly bright (no magnitude given, the central star is mag. 15.3), small (.7'x.5'), with little elongation. Most telescopes show 2 fairly prominent stars to the west (right).

NGC 3195 (10 09.5 –80 52) is a bright and prominent planetary nebula that is well worth searching out. The colour is white and all I could see was a uniform fuzzy patch although photographs do show some structure reminiscent of the dumbbell nebula. An O III filter increased the contrast but did not reveal any further structure.

NGC3149

About 30' to the NNW of NGC 3195 is the galaxy NGC 3149 (10 03.8 –80 25). This one is not particularly bright at 13th magnitude but I found it reasonably easily. It is a small blob showing hints of central condensation.

IC2631

IC 2631 (11 09.8 –76 37) is a fairly bright patch of reflection nebulosity about 2' across. It was quite easy in the C14 even though conditions weren’t the best and surrounds a 9th magnitude star.

NGC3620

About 20' to the NW of IC 2631 is the spiral galaxy NGC 3620 (11 16.1, -76 13). I found this one a bit more difficult than NGC 3620. It showed definite elongation.

Planetary Destinations In Chamaeleon

HD63454

Parent Star: HD 63454(K4 V) in the constellation of Chameleon is located at a distance of 116.76 Light Years from our Solar system Co-ordinates are Right Ascension: 07 39 21.8511 & Declination: -78 16 44.300. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 9.37. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.29 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 0.93 AU. Orbiting around HD 63454 is planet HD 63454 b is believed to be a Dark Hot Jupiter and its exitence has been confirmed. The Planets Appearance is Dark sodium haze. The planet is positioned out side of Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 0.036 AU. The planet Orbits around the star every 2.81782 ± 0.000095 Days and was discovered by C. Moutou, M. Mayor, F. Bouchy, C. Lovis, F. Pepe, D. Queloz, N.C. Santos, S. Udry, W. Benz, D. Naef, D. Ségransan, J.-P. Sivan in 2005.