What is "microscopium"

Microscopium is a minor constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, one of twelve created in the 18th century by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille and one of several depicting scientific instruments. Its name is a Latinised form of the Greek word for microscope. Its stars are faint and hardly visible from most of the non-tropical Northern Hemisphere.

The constellation's brightest star is Gamma Microscopii of apparent magnitude 4.68, a yellow giant located around 381 light-years distant. Two star systems— WASP-7 and HD 205739—have planets, while two others—the young red dwarf star AU Microscopii and the sunlike HD 202628—have debris disks. AU Microscopii and the binary red dwarf system AT Microscopii are probably a wide triple system and members of the Beta Pictoris moving group. Nicknamed "Speedy Mic", BO Microscopii is a star with an extremely fast rotation period of 9 hours 7 minutes.

According to traditional Chinese uranography, the modern constellation Microscopium is located within the northern quadrant of the sky, which is symbolized as the Black Tortoise of the North (北方玄武, Běi Fāng Xuán Wǔ).

The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 顯微鏡座 (xiǎn wēi jìng zuò), meaning "the microscope constellation".