Horologium, the Clock, is a long, faint southern constellation named for a pendulum clock, stretching beside the river Eridanus towards Achernar.
At a glance
| stars in the figure | 6 |
|---|---|
| nearest star of the figure | Iota Horologii, 56 light-years (17.2 pc) |
| farthest star of the figure | Beta Horologii, 295 light-years (90.3 pc) |
| depth | the farthest is 5.3 × farther than the nearest |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Horologium
Horologium was introduced by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, who named it after the pendulum clock, the instrument that made precise timekeeping, and so precise astronomy, possible. The figure is a thin, bent line of faint stars, imagined as the clock’s pendulum and weights. It has no myth and few named stars.
Its brightest star, Alpha Horologii, is an orange giant. Iota Horologii, a star much like the Sun and the nearest of the figure, is known to have a giant planet. The constellation lies in the far southern sky beside Eridanus and Reticulum, best seen in the evening in the southern spring and summer.
What you see in the piece
Fly out and the pendulum loses its line: Iota Horologii is close to the Sun while Beta Horologii lies several times farther, so the stars that hang in a neat chain from Earth turn out to lie at very different distances.
Questions
How far away are the stars of Horologium?
The nearest star of the figure is Iota Horologii, 56 light-years (17.2 pc) away; the farthest is Beta Horologii, 295 light-years (90.3 pc), 5.3 × farther.