Editing Triangulum Australe (section)

==History==

Italian navigator [[Amerigo Vespucci]] explored the New World at the beginning of the 16th century. He learnt to recognize the stars in the southern hemisphere and made a catalogue for his patron king [[Manuel I of Portugal]], which is now lost. As well as the catalogue, Vespucci wrote descriptions of the southern stars, including a triangle which may be either Triangulum Australe or [[Apus]]. This was sent to his patron in Florence, [[Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici]], and published as ''Mundus Novus'' in 1504.{{sfn|Kanas|2007|pp=118–19}} The first depiction of the constellation was provided in 1589 by Flemish astronomer and clergyman [[Petrus Plancius]] on a {{frac|32|1|2}}-cm diameter [[globe#Celestial|celestial globe]] published in Amsterdam by Dutch cartographer [[Jacob van Langren]],{{sfn|Ridpath Star Tales – Triangulum Australe}}<!-- cites previous three sentences--> where it was called Triangulus Antarcticus and incorrectly portrayed to the south of [[Argo Navis]]. His student [[Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser|Petrus Keyzer]], along with Dutch explorer [[Frederick de Houtman]], coined the name Den Zuyden Trianghel.{{sfn|Wagman|2003|pp=303–04}} Triangulum Australe was more accurately depicted in [[Johann Bayer]]'s celestial atlas ''[[Uranometria]]'' in 1603, where it was also given its current name.{{sfn|Moore|Tirion|1997|p=120}}

[[Nicolas Louis de Lacaille]] portrayed the constellations of [[Norma (constellation)|Norma]], [[Circinus (constellation)|Circinus]] and Triangulum Australe as a set square and ruler, a compass, and a surveyor's level respectively in a set of draughtsman's instruments in his 1756 map of the southern stars.{{sfn|Ridpath Star Tales – Lacaille}} Also depicting it as a surveyor's level, German [[Johann Bode]] gave it the alternate name of Libella in his ''Uranographia''.{{sfn|Ridpath Star Tales – Triangulum Australe}}

German poet and author [[Philipp von Zesen|Philippus Caesius]] saw the three main stars as representing the [[Patriarchs (Bible)|Three Patriarchs]], Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (with Atria as Abraham).{{sfn|Motz|Nathanson|1991|p=387}} The [[Wardaman people]] of the Northern Territory in Australia perceived the stars of Triangulum Australe as the tail of the [[Rainbow Serpent]], which stretched out from near [[Crux]] across to [[Scorpius]]. Overhead in October, the Rainbow Serpent "gives Lightning a nudge" to bring on the wet season rains in November.{{sfn|Harney|Cairns|2004|pp=156–57}}