Constellation Profile - Mensa

It has been a two month ride through the southern celestial hemisphere.  This is the last of Lacaille's famous constellations.  There are many other constellations in the south that I am sure we will profile in the coming year.  Mensa is different from all of the other Lacaille constellations as it does not reflect laboratory equipment found in enlightenment times.  It represents Table Mountain which overlooks Cape Town and is the only constellation in the sky that features a terrestrial object.  Lacaille did most of his work from the Cape and chose to name the constellation after this amazing landmark.

Table Mountain (Image Credit: Cape Town Magazine)

It is impossible to view from Calgary because it resides in the very South of the celestial sphere.  With a declination range from 70-85°S you can only begin to see it when you drop near to the equator.  It is a small constellation with very dim stars.  The brightest star is dimmer than 5th magnitude and will be difficult to find from the suburbs in the Southern Hemisphere.  However, the Large Magellanic Cloud forms its northern border.  Look below our satellite galaxy for a tabletop formation.  That is Mensa.

Star-hop to Mensa

Mensa forms an open trapezoid type shape representing Table Mountain.  Lacaille's original image in his planisphere is shown below.

Lacaille Mensa

Bode later developed a book known as the Uranographia and depicted this mountain within its pages.  This depiction is shown below.

Uranographia Mensa

As mentioned earlier, the Large Magellanic Cloud borders Mensa in the North.  Although this blog won't go in too much detail about our satellite galaxy it is worth mentioning a few things.

It stretches across about 10° of the sky and is a fairly bright object.  It is the third closest galaxy to our own Milky Way and is the fourth largest in the Local Group.  It was noted by Ferdinand Magellan during his early 16th century voyage and Western astronomers denoted it by his name.

The Tarantula Nebula finds itself a home within the Large Magellanic Cloud.  An article was recently written about this amazing region of space.  It is known to be one of the most active star forming regions within the entire Local Group.  This nebula was even noted by Lacaille during his two year voyage to chart the southern sky.

The Large Magellanic Cloud is probably number one on my list of southern hemisphere wonders that I wish to explore when I drop below the equator.  The image below shows the LMC with the Tarantula Nebula in the upper left of the galaxy.

Large Magellanic Cloud (Image Credit: ESA: Eckhard Slawik)

There are a few other deep-sky objects found throughout the constellation, but certainly not as exciting as the LMC.  If you have the chance to go to the southern hemisphere it is worth looking at the cloudy haze found at the top of the sky's Table Mountain.