Noctua (nonfiction)

Noctua (Latin: owl) was a constellation located near the tail of Hydra in the Southern celestial hemisphere, but is no longer recognized.

It was introduced by Alexander Jamieson in his 1822 work, A Celestial Atlas. and appeared in a derived collection of illustrated cards, Urania's Mirror.

Now designated Asterism a, the owl was composed of the stars 4 Libra and 54–57 Hydra which range from 4th to 6th magnitude.

The French astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier had introduced a bird on the water serpent's tail as the constellation Solitaire, named for the extinct flightless bird, the Rodrigues solitaire, but the image was that of a rock thrush which had been classified in the genus Turdus, giving rise to the constellation name Turdus Solitarius, the solitary thrush.

It has also been depicted as a mockingbird.

The boundaries of the constellation were defined as longitude 0° to 26°30' and from the ecliptic to 15° S.

Fiction cross-reference

• Noctua's Revenge (documentary film)

Nonfiction cross-reference

External links:

• Noctua (constellation)
• Noctua (constellation) @ Wikipedia
• noctua @ Wiktionary