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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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 p417  Triangulum Australe, the Southern Triangle

much more noticeable than its northern original, first appeared in print in Bayer's Uranometria of 1603, although its formation is attributed to Pieter Theodor of nearly a century previous.

Caesius cited names for it drawn from the older constellation, among them Almutabet algenubi Arabicē neotericis, which would show that either the Arabians had anticipated Bayer, or were very prompt to learn of his work. But he also called it the Three Patriarchs, doubtless Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from its three prominent stars; and Julius Schiller had recourse to their descendants for his alphabetical title Signum Tau. Proctor catalogued it as plain Triangulum, the Northern Triangle being one of his Triangula. The French, Germans, and Italians exactly translate the Latin words. The Chinese equivalent is San Kiō Hung.

The constellation lies south of Ara, between the tail of Pavo and the fore feet of the Centaur, Gould assigning to it 46 components down to the 7th magnitude. The lucida α comes to the meridian on the 14th of July.

α, 2.2, β and γ, 3.1 each, were — perhaps are now — the seamen's Triangle Stars.

Ideler said that La Caille substituted for it Norma et Regula, but in maps of the present day both constellations appear side by side.

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Page updated: 28 Dec 07

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