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This webpage reproduces a section of
Star Names
Their Lore and Meaning
by
Richard Hinckley Allen
as reprinted
in the Dover edition, 1963

The text is in the public domain.

This page has been carefully proofread
and I believe it to be free of errors.
If you find a mistake though,
please let me know!

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 p165  Chamaeleon,

the German Chamäleon, the French Caméléon, and the Italian Camaleonte, is a small and unimportant constellation below Carina, Octans separating it from the south pole. It was first published and figured by Bayer among his new constellations from observations by navigators of the preceding century. Pontanus, in Chilmead's Treatise, included it with Musca as "the Chamaelon with the flie"; but Julius Schiller entirely changed its character by combining it with Apus and Musca in his biblical Eve.

None of its stars seem to be named except in China, where some of the larger were Seaou Tow, a small Measure or Dipper, that our α, θ, η, ι, ε, μ2, and μ1 well show.

Gould gives 50 naked-eye components from 4.2 to the 7th magnitude. The constellation culminates about the 1st of May.

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Page updated: 8 Dec 07

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