Constellations of Lupus and Norma
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Lupus and Norma
Roll mouse over picture to see constellation outlines
Image and text ©2008 Akira Fujii/David Malin Images.

In the picture above north is at the top left and the image covers approx. 50 x 62 degrees.
Image centre is located approximately at 14;33:00, -41:30 (H:M:S, D:M:S, J2000) .

Lupus and Norma
Best seen in the early evening in June-July

Lupus, (the Wolf), was regarded by the Greeks and Romans as an unspecified wild animal, which the Centaur is carrying as a sacrifice the the gods. The identification of Lupus as a wolf seems to have been made in relatively recent times. The justaposition of these two constellations is best seen on our image of Centaurus, where there are also alternative stick figures for these constellations. Both Lupus and Norma are in the rich starfields of the southern Milky Way, easily seen between Antares and alpha and beta Centaurii. The brightest object in this image is Jupiter, on the ecliptic at the top of the frame.

Norma, (originally Norma et Regula, the builder's level and set square) is an insignificant scattering of stars compared to Lupus and Centaurus. Like the adjacent Circinus (the Drawing Compasses), it was invented by Nicolas de Lacaille, who charted the southern sky from South Africa in 1751-2 and felt obliged to fill vacant spaces in the sky with Enlightenment-inspired instruments of science. Circinus, Crux, and have their own pages, as do Lupus and Norma, with alternative constellation stick figures

Constellations adjoining Lupus: Centaurus, Circinus, Libra, Norma, Scorpius.
Constellations adjoining Norma: Ara, Circinus, Lupus, Scorpius, Triangulum Australe.

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David Malin, 2017 April 29.