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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!

 p291  Mons Mensae, the Table Mountain,

now abbreviated by astronomers to Mensa, is translated by the French as Montagne de la Table; by the Italians, as Monte Tavola; and by the Germans, as Tafelberg.

La Caille, who did so much for our knowledge of the southern heavens, formed the figure from stars under the Greater Cloud, between the poles of the equator and the ecliptic, just north of the polar Octans; the title being suggested by the fact that the Table Mountain, back of Cape Town, "which had witnessed his nightly vigils and daily toils," also was frequently capped by a cloud.

Gould found in the constellation 44 naked-eye stars, the brightest being of 5.3 magnitude; but within its borders is a portion of the Nubecula Major.

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