Star Lore Tubus Hershelii Minor Herschel's Smaller Telescope

Tubus Hershelii Minor 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. 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.

Tubus Hershelii Major, Tubus Hershelii Minor and the orbit of Uranus on Hell's chart (Highlights done by the author); Source: atlascoelestis.com

Unfortunately, Hell's renderings of the two telescopes wer inaccurate - they it 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. In the process, Tubus Hershelii Minor was omitted. Sources: Ian Ridpath, atlascoelestis.com, The Cambridge Guide to the Constellations

Tubus Hershelii Minor on Hell's chart Source: atlascoelestis.com

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