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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!

 p295  Nubecula Major, the Greater Cloud,

Nubes Major with Royer, is the Italian Nube Maggiore, the French Grand Nuage, and the German Grosse Wolke.

It lies in the constellations Dorado and Mons Mensae, 20° from the south pole, covering an irregular space in the sky of about forty-two square degrees; but the intensity of its light is inferior to that of the Lesser Cloud and is obliterated by the full moon. According to Flammarion, it contains 291 distinct nebulae, 46 clusters, and 582 stars.

Al Sufi mentioned it as Al Bakr, the White Ox, of the southern Arabs, and invisible from Baghdad, or northern Arabia, but visible from the parallel of the Strait of Babd al Mandab, in 12°15′ of north latitude. Ideler translated this as the Oxen of Tehama, — Tehama being a province on the Red Sea; this title probably includes the companion cloud.

Julius Schiller combined it with Dorado and Piscis Volans in his biblical figure Abel the Just.

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