Piscis Austrinus

star chart of PsA (IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine, Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg)

One of the 88 IAU constellations with a very old history: The original Greek name was The Great Fish was given to an earlier Babylonian constellation The Fish. When the constellation Pisces (two fish) was invented in Hellenistic times (possibly in Egypt) as a super-constellation from parts of neighbouring Babylonian originals (see Anunītu, Nunu, KU₆, ...), the original constellation of The Fish needed to be specified. To distinguish the two fish of Pisces from the traditional The Fish south of Aquarius, it was named Piscis Austrinus (or Notius as a Latinized Greek term for "south").

Etymology and History

The Greek constellation ...

Origin of Constellation

Almagest

id	Greek (Heiberg 1898)	English (Toomer 1984)	ident.
1
2
3
4
5
6

Weblinks

• Ridpath, Ian, “Star Tales: online edition”.

References

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