Abstract
The introduction of this constellation (Fig. 22.1) is attributed to Edmond Halley in honor of his patron, King Charles II of England. At the time of its introduction, Halley was recently returned to England from a trip to the South Atlantic island of St. Helena in 1676 to observe and catalog stars of the southern hemisphere. He presented the results of the survey to the Royal Society in 1678 and published them the following year in Catalogus Stellarum Australium. His citation read, “In memory of the hiding place that saved Charles II of Great Britain etc., deservedly translated to the heavens forever.” His flattery of the King paid off: as Richard Hinckley Allen (1899) put it, “This invention secured for Halley his master’s degree from Oxford, in 1678, by the king’s express command.”
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Notes
- 1.
Following Allen’s example: “Halley’s 2d-magnitude α Roboris was changed to β Argūs, now in Carina.”
- 2.
- 3.
“A Celeberrimo Angliæ Astronomo, Edmundo Hallejo, cùm ultra æquatorem, ut meridionalium stellarum vacaret observationibus, in insula S. Helenæ dicata ageret, Carolo II. tunc Angliæ Regio consecratrum.” (p. 209)
- 4.
3 Jac.1, c. 4.
- 5.
Charles later told the diarist Samuel Pepys in 1680 that while he was hiding in the oak, a Republican soldier walked directly beneath it.
- 6.
12 Cha. II c. 11 (1660).
- 7.
Volume 1, page 359.
- 8.
Translated by Evans (1992).
- 9.
Evidently there is no record of what Lacaille thought of Hevelius in the latter’s patent display of Polish patriotism by placing his patron’s shield among the stars as Scutum (Sobieskii).
- 10.
“Hat Halley zum Andenken Carls II, Königs in England, der sinstens auf eine Eiche flüchtete, unter die südlichen Gestirne gesetz. De la Caille gebrauchte die Sterne dieser Eiche mit zur Formierung des Schiffs, ich habe solche aber wieder hergestellt.”
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Barentine, J.C. (2016). Robur Carolinum. In: The Lost Constellations. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22795-5_22
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