Constellations of Reticulum and Dorado
author: A.Fujii/David Malin Images/Novapix
reference: a-cst74-00001
Image Size 300 DPI: 51 * 40 cm
Reticulum is another small and insignificant southern constellation introduced by Lacaille in the 1750s. It commemorates a reticle, the cross hairs in an eyepiece used for measuring star positions, from the Latin for 'net' (hence reticulation, network). It is best found by looking for the Large Magellanic Cloud in the adjoining constellation of Dorado. Dorado, the Goldfish or Swordfish (Xiphias), is a constellation introduced by Johann Bayer, best known for his 1603 star atlas Uranometria, which was the first to cover the entire sky. It is notable mainly for containing most of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way. Â