Cancer Minor
Former constellation
Cancer Minor (Latin for "lesser crab") was a constellation composed from a few stars in Gemini adjacent to Cancer. The constellation was introduced in 1612 (or 1613) by Petrus Plancius.
The 5th-magnitude stars constituting Cancer Minor were HD 59686, and 68, 74, 81 and 85 Geminorum, forming a faint natural arrow-shaped asterism.
It is only found on a few 17th-century Dutch celestial globes and in the atlas of Andreas Cellarius. It is mentioned as a recent creation in the 1627 star atlas Coelum Stellatum Christianum by Julius Schiller, where it is also called Cancellus (Latin for "little crab"), but it is not depicted. It was no longer used after the 18th century.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Cancer Minor”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Cancer minor stars.png by Imagehelper83738, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Cancer Minor 1681.jpg by Deryni, CC BY-SA 3.0
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