Rangifer

Rangifer - the reindeer - is an extinct constellation first introduced by Pierre-Charles Le Monnier in 1743 in the book La Théorie des Comètes.

Concordance, Etymology, History

The constellation is discussed at length on Ian Ridpath's Star Tales website (http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/rangifer.html) and Chapter 20 (p.307) of John Barentine's (2016) "The Lost Constellations: A History of Obsolete, Extinct, or Forgotten Star Lore."

Le Monnier was part of the 1736-1737 expeditions by Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis to Lapland which improved the measurement of the length of a degree of latitude and convincingly demonstrated the oblateness of the Earth. The reindeer and placement of the constellation just below the north celestial pole appear to commemorate the expedition and achievement.

As summarized by Ridpath and Barentine, the constellation of the reindeer appeared by several names during its life during the 18th and 19th centuries: "Le Reene" (in Le Monnier 1743), "le Réene" (Le Monnier 1746, Fortin 1776), "le Renne" (Fortin 1795), "Rennthier" (Bode 1876), "Rangifer" (Latin name, Bode 1801 Uranographia), "Tarandus" (Urania's Mirror 1825, Chambers 1877).

Carl Linnaeus (1758) dubbed the reindeer species of the Eurasian tundra "cervus tarandus", and Charles Hamilton Smith (1827) introduced the genus name Rangifer. Species and subspecies of Rangifer are called reindeer in Eurasia and caribou in North America. In a recent review by Lee Harding (2022, ZooKeys (1119): 117–151), 18 species or subspecies are now recognized in North America and 31 in Europe and Asia. "Reindeer" may have its origin from the Old Norse hreindýri.

Rangifer was comprised of very faint stars, indeed Bode's (1801) catalog Allgemeine Beschreibung und Nachweisung der Gestirne listed 47 stars in the constellation, most of which were magnitudes 6 and 7, and only one of 5th magnitude.

Barentine (2016, Fig. 8.20) overlays the Urania's Mirror version of the constellation over a modern star map. It appears that the brightest stars in Rangifer were 2 UMi (V=4.25 mag), HR 932 (V=4.92), OV Cep (V=5.07), 49 Cas (V=5.22), 40 Cas (V=5.25), and 47 Cas (V=5.38).

The brightest and northernmost (declination 86 deg) of these Rangifer stars is 2 Ursa Minoris, which is actually in modern-day Cepheus.

References:

http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/rangifer.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangifer_(constellation)

References

• References (general)
• References (Babylonian)
• References (ancient Greco-Roman)
• References (medieval)