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Reticulum
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Reticulum

constellation
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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:
“Net”
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Reticulum, constellation in the southern sky at about 4 hours right ascension and 60° south in declination. Its brightest star is Alpha Reticuli, with a magnitude of 3.3. The French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille formed this constellation in 1754. It represents the reticle, a device consisting of a network of silk threads placed in a telescope’s eyepiece and used to measure positions of celestial objects. It is believed that Lacaille named this constellation to commemorate the reticle that he used to measure the position of nearly 10,000 stars in the southern sky.

Erik Gregersen