Caelum, the Engraving Tool, is one of the faintest and smallest constellations, a few dim stars wedged between Columba and the river Eridanus.
At a glance
| stars in the figure | 4 |
|---|---|
| nearest star of the figure | Alpha Caeli, 65.8 light-years (20.2 pc) |
| farthest star of the figure | Delta Caeli, 704 light-years (216 pc) |
| depth | the farthest is 11 × farther than the nearest |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Caelum
Caelum was introduced by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, who named the new southern constellations after the tools of art and science. This one is the engraver’s chisel, the burin used to cut copper plates for printing, which is how star maps of his time were made. It has no myth and almost no traditional names among its stars.
Even its brightest star, Alpha Caeli, is faint to the eye, and the figure is no more than a short bent line. It lies south of Lepus and west of Columba, and is best seen in the evening in the southern summer, which is the northern winter, when Orion stands high above it.
What you see in the piece
Flown out to, the chisel’s few stars could hardly be less connected: Alpha Caeli is close to the Sun while Delta Caeli lies far deeper in space, so the short line from Earth becomes a long reach into the distance.
Questions
How far away are the stars of Caelum?
The nearest star of the figure is Alpha Caeli, 65.8 light-years (20.2 pc) away, and the farthest is Delta Caeli, 704 light-years (216 pc). The farthest is 11 × farther than the nearest.