The constellation Camaeleon (Chamaeleon) as depicted inJohann Gabriel Doppelmayr'sAtlas Coelestis, ca. 1742.
Chamaeleon was one of twelve constellations created byPetrus Plancius from the observations ofPieter Dirkszoon Keyser andFrederick de Houtman.[3] It first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 (or 1598) inAmsterdam by Plancius andJodocus Hondius.Johann Bayer was the firsturanographer to put Chamaeleon in a celestial atlas. It was one of many constellations created by European explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries out of unfamiliar Southern Hemisphere stars.[4]
Lacaille gave 17 starsBayer designations Alpha through Pi in 1756, but omitted Omicron and Xi, and labelled two stars as Delta, Mu and Pi. In 1879,Benjamin Gould included Lambda Chamaeleontis and Pi2 Chamaeleontis as part ofMusca and the designations were no longer used.[5]
There are four bright stars in Chamaeleon that form a compact diamond-shape approximately 10 degrees from thesouth celestial pole and about 15 degrees south ofAcrux, along the axis formed by Acrux andGamma Crucis.Alpha Chamaeleontis is a white-hued star of magnitude 4.1, 63 light-years from Earth.Beta Chamaeleontis is a blue-white hued star of magnitude 4.2, 271 light-years from Earth.Gamma Chamaeleontis is a red-hued giant star of magnitude 4.1, 413 light-years from Earth. The other bright star in Chamaeleon isDelta Chamaeleontis, a widedouble star. The brighter star isDelta2 Chamaeleontis, a blue-hued star of magnitude 4.4.Delta1 Chamaeleontis, the dimmer component, is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 5.5. They both lie about 350 light years away.[3]
Chamaeleon is also the location ofCha 110913, a unique dwarf star or proto solar system.
The constellation contains a number ofmolecular clouds (theChamaeleon dark clouds) that are forming low-massT Tauri stars. The cloud complex lies some 400 to 600light years from Earth, and contains tens of thousands of solar masses of gas and dust. The most prominent cluster of T Tauri stars and young B-type stars are in the Chamaeleon I cloud, and are associated with the reflection nebulaIC 2631.
Chamaeleon contains one planetary nebula,NGC 3195, which is fairly faint. It appears in a telescope at about the same apparent size asJupiter.[3]
^Wagman, Morton (2003).Lost Stars: Lost, Missing and Troublesome Stars from the Catalogues of Johannes Bayer, Nicholas Louis de Lacaille, John Flamsteed, and Sundry Others. Blacksburg,VA: The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company. pp. 305–07.ISBN978-0-939923-78-6.
Ridpath, Ian; Tirion, Wil (2017),Stars and Planets Guide, Princeton University Press,ISBN978-0-691-17788-5
Staal, Julius D.W. (1988),The New Patterns in the Sky: Myths and Legends of the Stars, The McDonald and Woodward Publishing Company,ISBN0-939923-04-1
Luhman, K.L.; Steeghs, D. (2004), "Spectroscopy of Candidate Members of the η Chamaeleontis and MBM 12 Young Associations",The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 609, no. 2, IOPscience, pp. 917–924,arXiv:astro-ph/0403684,Bibcode:2004ApJ...609..917L,doi:10.1086/421291
