Monoceros' dim stars are offset by other fine sights.

By Sue French

MONOCEROS, THE UNICORN, is a relatively modern constellation. Flemish cartographer Petrus Plancius introduced it on his celestial globe of 1613, but the constellation may have earlier forebears. In Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (Dover, 1963), Richard Hinckley Allen claims that French scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger found it on a Persian sphere. Astronomer Ludewig Ideler, in his 1809 work on the origin and meaning of star names, writes that he found this reference to it in a 1564 German astrology book: "The other horse under the Twins and the Crab has many stars, though not bright".

Monoceros is nearly as difficult to catch sight of as the mythical creature it represents. The Unicorn sports no star brighter than 4th magnitude, yet it's a wonderful constellation to explore. The summer Milky Way drapes Monoceros in delicate chiffon spangled with spectacular nebulae and star clusters. Let's lift ourselves on wings of glass to soar among them.

Read the rest of this article in the February/March issue of Australian Sky & Telescope.