Sextans
constellation on the celestial equator
Sextans is a faint, minor constellation on the celestial equator which was introduced in 1687 by Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius. Its name is Latin for the astronomical sextant, an instrument that Hevelius made frequent use of in his observations.
Characteristics
Sextans is a medium-sized constellation bordering Leo to the north, touching on Hydra to the southwest, and Crater to the southeast. The recommended three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is "Sex". The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a square. In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 09h 41m and 10h 51m , while the declination coordinates are between +6.43° and −11.7°. Since it is close to the ecliptic plane, the Moon and planets regularly cross the constellation, especially its northeastern corner.
History
Sextans was introduced by Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1687, originally under the name Sextans Uraniae. The constellation was named in memory of the astronomical sextant he lost when his observatory was destroyed by fire on 26 September 1679, a catastrophe he later described in the preface to his Annus climactericus (1685). Despite the devastation, Hevelius rebuilt enough of his equipment to observe the great comet of December 1680.
“Sextans” enters the record as constellation on the celestial equator. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sextans, constellation and celestial can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q10525. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1687, 1922, 1930 and 1679.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sextans” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.