Globus Aerostaticus is a now obsolete constellation in the southern hemisphere, created in
1798 by Jérôme Lalande.
Between 1791 and 1801, French astronomer Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande
put together a star catalogue containing 47,390 stars. As part of it, he designed
four new constellations.
In 1751, Lalande had cooperated with fellow French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in
measurements of the Lunar Parallax (Lalande from Berlin, Germany and de Lacaille from the Cape of Good Hope in
South Africa).
During his time at the Table Mount, de Lacaille had designed fourteen new constellations in the
southern hemisphere, thirteen of them being named after scientific instruments and artist's tools, symbolizing the
Age of Enlightenment.
These creations inspired Lalande to design a constellation of his own, commemorating the - in his words, "greatest discovery of the French" - the hot air balloon
invented by the Montgolfier brothers in 1782.
.jpg){kind=link}