Fornax Constellation: The Ultimate Guide

Fornax is classified as one of the 88 modern constellations. It has no associated history or myths in ancient Western cultures because it was not visible in those regions.

In the case of Greek culture, when Ptolemy wrote the Almagest with the first 48 constellations in history, it did not mention the constellation Fornax, and it did not appear on the celestial maps of the time.

It is known that Fornax is one of the faintest constellations and that most of its stars cannot be seen with the naked eye, so it was necessary to wait for telescopes to be invented to see it.

French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille first described the constellation in French as "le Fourneau Chymique" (the chemical furnace) with a still and receiver in his first catalog.

He later abbreviated it as "le Fourneau" (The Furnace) in his 1752 planisphere, having observed and cataloged nearly 10,000 southern stars during a two-year stay at the Cape of Good Hope.

He devised fourteen new constellations in unexplored regions of the Celestial Southern Hemisphere that were not visible from Europa. All honored instruments that symbolized the Age of Enlightenment.

Lacaille Latinized the name "Fornax Chimiae" in his 1763 graph. Subsequently, the consequent astronomers abbreviated the name of the constellation to Fornax.

Recently Dr. Javier de Cos of the University of Oviedo, in conjunction with a team of researchers from the Astrophysical Institute of the Canary Islands, discovered that one of the stars in the constellation of Libra has an exoplanet (a planet that is orbiting a star other than the Sun).

The discovery was carried out with the Kepler space telescope and the OSIRIS modules of the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and HARPS-N of the Galileo National Telescope (TNG).

It is located at a distance of 244 light-years away. This star has 0.62 of the radius of the SunSun and a temperature of only 3650º C, so it can be said that it is much smaller and colder.

The exoplanet has 2.1 times the radius of the Earth and, according to the survey, could have a temperature between 40º C and 60º C, so it could have liquid water, which makes it a significant candidate to host earthly life.

Fornax resides in the first quadrant of the Southern Hemisphere (SQ1) between latitudes 50° N and 90° S, which means that we can see the constellation in the night sky from all countries of the southern hemisphere of the earth and some countries of the northern hemisphere.

Fornax is visible in America, Europe, Africa, Australia, Japan, and Antarctica.

Fornax is not visible in regions above 50° N such as Canada, half of Europe such as the United Kingdom, Austria or Norway, and Russia, Greenland, and Alaska.

Fornax is a constellation near the south pole. It is visible almost all year round; however, December is the best month to visualize it.

The constellation Fornax is visible during winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere.

The constellation Fornax is one of the faintest, so it is not easy to locate; it is best to lean on bright stars near Fornax, such as Rigel or Achernar.

The easiest way to locate the constellation Fornax is by drawing an imaginary straight line from the star Rigel of the constellation Orion towards the star Achernar of the constellation Eridanus. The constellation Fornax lies right in the middle of those two bright stars.

The constellations bordering Fornax are Cetus, Sculptor, Phoenix, and Eridanus.

In addition, Fornax belongs to the family of constellations of Lacaille; These include Antlia, Caelum, Circinus, Horologium, Mensa, Microscopium, Norma, Octans, Pictor, Reticulum, Sculptor, and Telescopium.

The constellation Fornax officially contains 59 stars, of which 4 form the central figure of the constellation; these are Dalim, Beta Fornacis, Nu Fornacis, and Omega Fornacis.

It is the brightest star in the constellation Fornax, with an apparent magnitude of +3.80. It is a star relatively close to the Solar System, as it is 46 light-years away.

Fornacis is a binary star whose components are separated by 4 arcseconds. The main component, Fornacis A, is a yellow subgiant of spectral type F8IV and 6240 K of surface temperature, four times more luminous than the Sun.

The secondary star, Fornacis B, is a yellow dwarf of spectral type G7V less luminous than the Sun, with a temperature of 5500 K.

Beta Fornacis is the second brightest star in the constellation Fornax with a magnitude of +4.46.

It consists of a yellow-orange giant star of spectral type G8.5IIIb, also cataloged as K0III. It has an effective temperature of 4790 K, and its luminosity is 55 times higher than that of the Sun.

Fornax is also home to several deep-sky objects. Deep-sky objects often mean star clusters, nebulae (interstellar cloud bodies), or galaxies.

The case of Fornax has a great diversity of star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies; some of them are:

It is the most notable deep-sky object in the constellation Fornax. It consists of a cluster of galaxies mainly located in the constellation Fornax and at an approximate distance from the Milky Way of 62.0 million light-years (19.0 Mpc).

This is the second wealthiest galaxy cluster within a radius of 100 million light-years around the Local Group, second only to the Virgo cluster.

• NGC 1097 is a spiral galaxy discovered by William Herschel on October 9, 1790. It is not part of the Fornax Cluster and interacts with the neighboring galaxy NGC 1097A.
• NGC 1350, NGC 1365, and NGC 1398; 3 are spiral galaxies.
• NGC 1316 (Fornax A): It is a lenticular galaxy and radiogalaxy. The study of star clusters of red stars in this galaxy has concluded that a giant collision between two spiral galaxies a few billion years ago gave the current shape to this galaxy.
• NGC 1360: It is a planetary nebula with a binary system of two white dwarfs.
• Fornax Dwarf Galaxy: A small galaxy part of the Local Group contains the globular cluster NGC 1049.
• Galaxy UDFj-39546284: The most distant and oldest known galaxy at its discovery (January 26, 2011).

Fornax is a constellation located primarily in the southern hemisphere. Its name comes from Latin and means "oven."

Fornax is one of the 88 modern constellations, so its name is not derived from a myth, history, or ancient legend like the most famous constellations.

The constellation Fornax is located between 50° N and 90° S. The best month to observe the constellation is in December.

The easiest way to locate the constellation Fornax is by drawing an imaginary straight line from the star Rigel of the constellation Orion towards the star Achernar of the constellation Eridanus. The constellation Fornax lies right in the middle of those two bright stars.

The brightest star in the constellation Fornax is Fornacis (α Fornacis / α For / HD 20010), with an apparent magnitude of +3.80.

The most notable deep sky body in the constellation Fornax is the Fornax Cluster.

1. https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/fornax-constellation/
2. http://www.seasky.org/constellations/constellation-fornax.html
3. https://www.universetoday.com/20727/fornax/
4. https://www.universeguide.com/constellation/fornax