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Musca Borealis (Latin fornorthernfly) was aconstellation,now discarded, located between the constellations ofAries andPerseus.[1] It was originally calledApes (plural of Apis, Latin for bee) byPetrus Plancius when he created it in 1612. It was made up of a small group of stars, now called33 Arietis,35 Arietis,39 Arietis, and41 Arietis,[2] in the north of the constellation ofAries.
The brightest star is now known as 41 Arietis (Bharani). At magnitude 3.63, it is a blue-white main sequence star of spectral type B8V around 166 light-years distant.[3] 39 Arietis (Lilii Borea) is an orange giant star of magnitude 4.51 and spectral type K1.5III that is around 171 light-years distant.[4]
The constellation was renamedVespa byJakob Bartsch in 1624. The renaming by Bartsch may have been intended to avoid confusion with another constellation, created by Plancius in 1598, that was called Apis by Bayer in 1603. Plancius called this earlier constellation Muia (Greek for fly) in 1612, and it had been called Musca (Latin for fly) by Blaeu in 1602, although Bayer was evidently unaware of this.[5]
In 1679Augustin Royer used these stars for his constellationLilium (the Lily, representing thefleur-de-lis and in honour of his patron, KingLouis XIV).[2]
It was first described as "Musca" byHevelius in his catalogue of 1690. Subsequent astronomers renamed it into "Musca Borealis", to distinguish it from the southern fly,Musca Australis.
This constellation is no longer in use; the stars it contained are now included inAries. The Southern Fly, Musca Australis, is now simply known asMusca.
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