Star Lore

Telescopium Herschelii

Herschel's Telescope

Telescopium Herschelii is a now obsolete constellation designed in 1789 by Maximilian Hell.

In 1774, British astronomer William Herschel constructed his first large telescope. In March 1781, using his telescope, Herschel observed an object appearing as a disk. It turned out that Herschel had discovered a new member of our planetary system, the planet Uranus.

In 1789, Hungarian born astronomer Maximilian Hell, first director of the Vienna Observatory, dedicated a "celestial monument" (Stern-Denkmal in German) to William Herschel.

Hell's "monument" consisted of two telescopes in places close to the location of Herschel's discovery:

Tubus Hershelii Major, slightly north of Uranus' orbit, between the constellations Lynx and Gemini was made of six faint stars of the constellation Auriga, the brightest one ( apparent visual magnitude of 4.8) being ψ². It was to represented Herschel’s 20-feet-long telescope.

Tubus Hershelii Minor, representing Herschel’s 7-feet reflector and located slightly south of Uranus' orbit, was made of faint stars east of the Hyades in the constellation Taurus.

Unfortunately, Hell's renderings of the two telescopes were inaccurate - they dit did not represent the types of telescopes used by Herschel. This was probably one of the reasons why German astronomer Johann Elert Bode did a complete overhaul of Hell's work in 1801, when he published his Uranographia. Tubus Hershelii Major, Tubus Hershelii Minor and the orbit of Uranus on
Hell's chart (Highlights done by the author); Source: atlascoelestis.com
Hell's (left) and Bode's (right) versions of Herschel's Telescope
Sources: Hell's Charts at atlascoelestis.com and
Bode's Uranographia at atlascoelestis.com

Bode omitted Tubus Hershelii Minor. As for Tubus Hershelii Major, he replaced Hell's inaccurate drawing with a precise rendering of Herschel’s 7-feet reflector and called it Telescopium Herschelii.

There have been other inaccurate presentations of the telescope (most notably 1824 in Uranias Mirror), but in one way or another, the constellation survived for over 100 years Eventually, it was left out in 1928, when the International Astronomical Union settled on today's 88 Constellations.

Sources: Wikipedia, Ian Ridpath, atlascoelestis.com
A third part of Hell's monument was Psalterium Georgii (George's Harp), honoring Herschel's patron, British King George III. All three designs were first published in Monumenta, Aere Perenniora, Inter Astra Ponenda.

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