Located in the southern celestial hemisphere, the constellation Fornax is partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus. The name of the constellation, Fornax is Latin for furnace, which was given by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756.

Alpha, Beta and Nu Fornacis, the 3 brightest stars of the constellations, form a flattened triangle facing south. Six star systems have been found to have exoplanets.

The constellation covers 397.5 square degrees and 0.964% of the night sky, making Fornax the 41st largest constellation by size.

	Applicable Information
Visibility In Pacific Northwest	September to February
Best Times To View	November
Right Ascension	3h
Declination	−30°
Area	398 square degrees
Main Stars	2
Brightest Object	α For
Meteor showers	0
Messier objects	0
Neighboring Constellations	Cetus, Sculptor, Phoenix, Eridanus

History

The French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille first described the constellation as le Fourneau Chymique before abbreviating the nam to le Fourneau in 1752. This was during his 2 year observing period at the Cape of Good Hope, during which time, he catalogued and observed 10,000 southern stars and 14 new constellations. The name of the constellation would be Latinised to Fornax Chimiae in 1763.

In Chinese astronomy, the stars that correspond to Fornax are within the White Tiger of the West.

Stars

Lacaille gave Bayer designations to 27 stars, which are now named Alpha to Omega Fornacis. There are a total of 59 stars within the constellation’s borders brighter than or equal to apparent magnitude 6.5. However, there are no stars brighter than the fourth magnitude.

The three brightest stars form a flattish triangle, with the stars Alpha and Nu Fornacis marking the eastern and western points, with Beta Fornacis marking the southern apex.

Located in the Fornax Dwarf Galaxy, NGC 1049 is a globular cluster located 500,000 light-years from Earth.

NGC 1360 is a planetary nebula in Fornax with a magnitude of 9.0. It is located 978 light-years from Earth.

NGC 1097 is a barred spiral galaxy in Fornax, is visible in amateur telescopes of medium size.

NGC 1399 is a large elliptical galaxy in that is the central galaxy in the Fornax cluster. The galaxy is one of the largest galaxies in the Fornax cluster, is slightly larger than Milky Way, and was discovered by William Herschel.

NGC 1386 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Eridanus and is thought to be 50,000 light years across in size.

Discovered by John Herschel in 1837, NGC 1460 is a barred lenticular galaxy moving away from the Milky Way.

Other cool objects in Fornax include the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and the Fornax Cluster, which is a small cluster of galaxies.

Make sure to check out other articles on the site, including a brief introduction to constellations, other constellation articles, and more!