Celestial Atlas
Andromeda <—     Antlia: The (Air) Pump     —> Apus
(possessive form Antliae, abbreviation Ant)
Hold the cursor over any Greek letter shown in the text to see its English transliteration
Constellations Bordering Antlia
(tba)

One of fourteen southern constellations created by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756, as a result of his observations of ten thousand southern stars, but not introduced to the public until the posthumous publication of his work in 1763. Originally called La Machine Pneumatique (the Air Machine), then Latinized to Antlia Pneumatique (the Air Pump), and later simplified to merely Antlia (the Pump), it represented an air pump invented by French physicist Denis Papin in the 1670's, for his studies of the vacuum.



Illustrations of Antlia
The region near Antlia, from Bode's 1801 Uranographia
(Image Credit and © Tartu Observatory Virtual Museum; used by permission)
Portion of Bode's Uranographia showing region near Antlia

The "double-pump" shown here is a later version of Papin's pumps; Lacaille drew an earlier version
Portion of Bode's Uranographia showing Antlia

Map of Antlia
Modified version of Wikimedia Commons map by Torsten Bronger


Stars in Antlia

     Stars which have common names often have multiple names, so the common names shown (if any) cannot be considered authoritative. Right ascension and declination are given in 2000.0 coordinates.

α Ant

β Ant

γ Ant

δ Ant

ε Ant


Celestial Atlas
Andromeda <—     Antlia: The (Air) Pump     —> Apus