Constellation Data

Name: FORNAX Translation: Furnace Abbreviation: For Genitive: Fornacis Size: 41 Located Between: Cetus, Eridanus RA: 3 hours Decl: -30 degrees Season: Fall Midnight Culmination: November 2 Pages where FORNAX is discussed in Chet Raymo's 365 Starry Nights: 194

What is the Genitive form? What is Right Ascension (RA)? Is this constellation ever visible from my latitude? What is Declination? Where should I look for a constellation on a date before or after its midnight culmination? What is Midnight Culmination?

Description

A small constellation of faint stars nestled within a bend of the river (Eridanus), low in the south.

Legend: In the constellation chart above...
• Star colors represent their spectral types (even for double stars).
• Bright star labels are yellow; significant other stars are labelled in magenta.
• The size of each star indicates its relative magnitude.
• Constellation names are light blue.
• Grid lines represent either 10 degree intervals of declination above or below the equator, or intervals of one hour (=15 degrees) of right ascension (measured along the equator).
• Messier object numbers are pink.
• Galaxies are ovals: blue if spiral, yellow if elliptical, light blue if irregular.
• Globular clusters are gold starbursts.
• Open clusters are dotted white circles.
• Planetary nebula are green diamonds.
• Bright nebula are magenta squares.
• Dark nebula are grey rectangles.
• Green x's are x-ray sources.
• Purple O's with a diagonal slash through them are quasars.

Special Stars

Alpha-Fornacis is only magnitude 3.9. Declination: -29 degrees south.

Table of 25 Brightest Stars.
What is apparent stellar magnitude?

Galaxies

The "Fornax Dwarf" galaxy is only 420,000 LY away (for comparison, the Andromeda galaxy is 2,200,000 LY). Although extremely close, it is extremely small, only 7,000 LY in diameter. Such dwarf galaxies must be very common, but obviously cannot be seen unless they are very close.

Fornax is crowded with other faint galaxies requiring a deep sky telescope.

What are Galaxies?
Table of Messier Objects.
What is apparent Magnitude?

Origin

Created by Lacaille in 1752 as one of 14 constellations named after scientific instruments. He called it Fornax Chemica, the Chemical Furnace.

©1997 Welcome to the Basic Celestial Phenomena web site. To provide explanations of basic observational astronomy to students, teachers, families, and visitors to planetariums these pages have been written by an ex-OBU Planetarium Director, Kerry Magruder; the OBU Natural Sciences Coordinator, Mike Keas; and some of the students who work in the OBU planetarium.

The source for the logo is not a medieval woodcut!

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