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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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 p221  Fornax Chemica, or Fornax Chymiae, the Chemical Furnace,

was formed by La Caille from stars within the southern bend of the River; but modern astronomers, by whom it is still recognized, have abbreviated the title to Fornax.

The Chinese know it as Tien Yu, Heaven's Temporary Granary.

Bode changed the early name in 1782 to Apparatus chemicus, and translated it as the Chemische Apparat, Chymische Ofen, and l'Apparat Chimique, an alteration in honor of the celebrated chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier. These titles, however, have fallen into disuse.

Gould assigns to it 110 stars, from 3.6 to 7th magnitudes.

α, the lucida, is a double of 4th and 7th magnitudes, 3″ apart, with a position angle of 320°, and may be binary. It comes to the meridian on the 19th of December.

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Page updated: 25 Sep 07

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