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Octans
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Star trails over banksia trees, in Gippsland, Vic., Austl. The south celestial pole, located in the constellation Octans, is at the centre of the trails.
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Star trails over banksia trees, in Gippsland, Vic., Austl. The south celestial pole, located in the constellation Octans, is at the centre of the trails.
Star trails over banksia trees, in Gippsland, Vic., Austl. The south celestial pole, located in the constellation Octans, is at the centre of the trails.

Octans

astronomy
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Written by
Erik Gregersen
Erik Gregersen is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. Before joining Britannica in 2007, he worked at the University of Chicago Press on the...
Erik Gregersen
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Latin:
“Octant”
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Octans, constellation in the southern sky that covers the south celestial pole. Its brightest star is Nu Octantis, with a magnitude of 3.8. The southern polestar, Polaris Australis (also called Sigma Octantis), has a magnitude of 5.4 and thus, unlike the north polestar, Polaris, is quite difficult to see with the naked eye. The French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille formed this constellation in 1754. It represents the octant, a navigational instrument that was replaced by the sextant in the latter half of the 18th century.

Erik Gregersen