Fornax

Star References
1. Alpha Fornacis: The brightest star in the constellation; a double appearing as a single star of mag. 3.8. In a small telescope, a 7th-mag. companion is revealed. The stars orbit each other every 300 years and lie about 46 light-years away.

Deep-Sky Objects

NGC 1316/1365: The Fornax Cluster
A cluster of galaxies lying about 75 million light-years away. NGC 1316 and NGC 1365 can both be seen with a small telescope and are among the brightest in the cluster. NGC 1316 is a peculiar spiral and the radio source Fornax A, which may imply a black hole at its center. NGC 1365 is a spiral subtype known as barred, meaning that its center is rod-shaped instead of round.

Mythology

Fornax was invented by Lacaille to represent a chemical furnace.

Interesting Facts

1. Fornax has undergone several name changes since its conception in 1751. It has been known as Apparatus Chemica and Fornax Chemica, but the 1928 standardization of constellations removed the "Chemica" entirely, calling it simply Fornax.

Created by Dan Corbett, Kate Stafford, and Patrick Wright for ThinkQuest.