Profile / Characteristics
| English translation | Latin declination and pronunciations | Size/ °² | # stars (visible) |
| the Southern Fish | Piscis Austrinus – PICE-iss (PISS-iss) aw-STRY-nus Piscis Austrini – PICE-iss (PISS-iss) aw-STRY-nye | 245 | 46 |
Main Star (brightest one):
| Designation | HIP number | name in IAU-CSN | brightness |
| α PsA | HIP 113368 | Fomalhaut | 1.16 mag (V) |
Our (modern) Explanation
Ptolemy, including this constellation in his star catalogue, made it immortal for the next two millennia. Howevr, it was a direct takeover of an original Babylonian constellation. The “huge fish” or “southern fish” or simply “fish” with the bright star on his mouth can be traced back at least to the second millennium BCE
Ancient Globes
Farnese Globe
Kugel Globe
Mainz Globe
missing (shoulder of the Atlas statue)
Ancient Lore & Meaning
Aratus
Reference:
English translation by Douglas Kidd (1997).
Aratus: Phaenomena, Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, Series Number 34
Pseudo-Eratosthenes
References:
French translation by:
Jordi Pàmias i Massana and Arnaud Zucker (2013). Ératosthènes de Cyrène – Catastérismes, Les Belles Lettres, Paris
English version in:
Robin Hard (2015): Eratosthenes and Hyginus Constellation Myths with Aratus’s Phaenomena, Oxford World’s Classics
Modern and Mediaeval Depiction
Depiction in Stellarium (by Fabien Chéreau, since 2000 CE)
depiction in the Leiden Aratea (9th century CE)
Early Modern Interpretation
Contemporary
As one of their first tasks in the 1920s, the newly founded International Astronomical Union (IAU) established constellation standards. The Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte was assigned to the task to define borders of constellations parallel to lines of declination and right ascension. They were accepted by the General Assembly in 1928. The standardized names and abbreviations had already been accepted in 1922 and 1925.
