Rangifer

Reindeer in Le Monnier (1743), see also: rara Zurich

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

Sarva, The Elk, in Sami uranography (Stellarium).

Rangifer in Sidney Hall (1825) plate 2 in Urania's Mirror

Rangifer and Custom Messium (Bode 1801)

The constellation is discussed at length on Ian Ridpath's Star Tales and John Barentine (2016), Chapter 20 (p.307). 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.

Origin of Constellation

Ridpath elaborates:

A faint, far-northern constellation introduced in 1743 on a star chart published by the Frenchman Pierre-Charles Le Monnier (1715–99) in his book La Théorie des Comètes. The chart showed the track of the comet of 1742 through the north polar region of the sky and Le Monnier was inspired to place a new constellation representing a reindeer on the comet’s course, close to the north celestial pole between Cepheus and Camelopardalis. Le Monnier chose a reindeer as a reminder of his trip to Lapland in 1736–37 with the expedition of Pierre Louis de Maupertuis to measure the length of a degree of latitude in the far north. (The Sami people of northern Scandinavia also visualized a reindeer called Sarvvis, or Sarva, among the stars, but theirs was much bigger, incorporating Auriga, Perseus, Cassiopeia, and Cepheus.)

The same chart was republished in 1746 in Le Monnier’s book Institutions astronomiques but with no further explanation of the new constellation that appeared on it. Le Monnier seems never to have published a list of its stars, but Bode in his catalogue Allgemeine Beschreibung und Nachweisung der Gestirne of 1801 assigned it 46 stars of 5th to 7th magnitude plus one deep-sky object, the galaxy NGC 1184. Most of these are now within the borders of northern Cepheus.

On Le Monnier’s chart the constellation was named ‘le Réene’, a spelling that was adopted by his fellow Frenchman Jean Fortin in his Atlas Céleste of 1776 (with the addition of an accent over the first letter e: Réene). However, the name should more accurately have been ‘le Renne’, and Fortin changed it on his revised edition of 1795. Bode Latinized it as Rangifer on his Uranographia of 1801. An alternative name found on some maps was Tarandus from the reindeer’s scientific name, Rangifer tarandus.

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.

Stars inside the Constellation Area

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 the following:

design.	HIP	HR	Vmag
2 UMi	5372	285	4.25
HD 19275	14862	932	4.92
OV Cep	37391	2609	5.07
49 Cas	9763	592	5.22
40 Cas	7650	456	5.25
47 Cas	9727	581	5.38

The brightest and northernmost (declination 86°) of these Rangifer stars is 2 Ursae Minoris, which is actually in modern-day Cepheus. The star marks the tip of the tail in LeMonnier's original drawing and in Bode (1782) but is not part of the figure in Bode (1801).

Rangifer stickfigure in Sky Culture Maker (Dec. 2025), CC BY Youla Azkarrula.

Stars within the Constellation Area

The stick figure for this list was created with with map in Bode (1801) Uranographia. The original map by Le Monnier (1743) drew the Reindeer in a different way, as it did not have a constellation of Custos Messium. Le Monnier's original map includes the bright star 2 UMi which is brighter than the brighest star in this list:

id	Label	IAU design.	description	Vmag
1	-	HIP 14862	Inside the hull	4.834
2	-	HIP 25110	Constellation lines (Vertex)	5.06
3	-	HIP 23265	Constellation lines (Vertex)	5.09
4	49 Cas	HIP 9763	Constellation lines	5.22
5	47 Cas	HIP 9727	Constellation lines	5.268
6	-	HIP 20776	Inside the hull	5.43
7	-	HIP 15547	Constellation lines	5.444
8	-	HIP 20982	Inside the hull	5.472
9	V408 Cep	HIP 20860	Constellation lines (Vertex)	5.507
10	-	HIP 14417	Constellation lines	5.52
11	-	HIP 5626	Inside the hull	5.6
12	-	HIP 16489	Constellation lines (Vertex)	5.609
13	-	HIP 19461	Inside the hull	5.62
14	-	HIP 13055	Inside the hull	5.781
15	-	HIP 14844	Inside the hull	5.907
16	-	HIP 9568	Constellation lines	6.046
17	STF 2	HIP 760	Constellation lines (Vertex)	6.047
18	-	HIP 10054	Inside the hull	6.06
19	-	HIP 6522	Constellation lines	6.064
20	-	HIP 5412	Inside the hull	6.23
21	-	HIP 17056	Constellation lines	6.247
22	-	HIP 5947	Inside the hull	6.261
23	-	HIP 6261	Constellation lines	6.318
24	-	HR 1230	Inside the hull	6.32
25	-	HIP 20039	Constellation lines	6.38
26	-	HIP 6378	Inside the hull	6.38
27	-	HIP 10309	Inside the hull	6.445
28	-	HIP 2142	Constellation lines	6.54
29	-	HIP 9147	Constellation lines	6.61
30	-	HIP 8908	Constellation lines	6.67
31	-	HIP 3964	Constellation lines	6.751
32	-	HIP 13897	Constellation lines	6.87
33	-	HIP 15843	Constellation lines (Vertex)	6.92
34	STT 37AB	HIP 10144	Constellation lines	6.97
35	-	HIP 3796	Constellation lines	7.1
36	-	HIP 6379	Constellation lines	7.167
37	-	HIP 6385	Inside the hull	7.21
38	-	HIP 15011	Constellation lines	7.27
39	-	HIP 6175	Constellation lines	7.27
40	-	HIP 15516	Constellation lines	7.34
41	-	HIP 21558	Constellation lines	7.36
42	-	HIP 8057	Constellation lines (Vertex)	7.58
43	-	HIP 11906	Constellation lines	7.66
44	-	HIP 18940	Constellation lines	7.71
45	-	HIP 3380	Constellation lines	7.9

Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation

• 

  Le Monnier (1743)

• 

  Bode (1801)

• 

  Hall (1825)

Weblinks

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

References

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