Polophylax

Polophylax (Greek: guardian of the celestial [south] pole) was a southern constellation that lay where Tucana and Grus now are.

It was introduced by Petrus Plancius in the small celestial planispheres on his large wall map of 1592.^[1] It is also shown on his smaller world map of 1594 and on world maps copied from Plancius.^[2]

It was superseded by the twelve constellations which Petrus Plancius formed in late 1597 or early 1598 from the southern star observations of Pieter Dircksz Keyser and Frederik de Houtman.^[2]

References

1. Barentine, John C. (2016), "Polophylax", Uncharted Constellations: Asterisms, Single-Source and Rebrands, Springer Praxis Books, Springer, Cham, pp. 109–113, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_12, ISBN 978-3-319-27619-9, retrieved 2023-08-04
2. Ridpath, Ian. "Polophylax". Star Tales. Retrieved 2023-08-04.