Editing Monoceros (section)

== History ==

[[File:Sidney Hall - Urania's Mirror - Monoceros, Canis Minor, and Atelier Typographique.jpg|thumb|400px|The constellation Monoceros, from ''[[Urania's Mirror]]'', a set of star charts from 1825. Includes [[Canis Minor]] and the obsolete constellation [[Officina Typographica|Printer's Workshop]]]]

In Western astronomy, Monoceros is a relatively modern constellation, not one of [[Ptolemy]]'s 48 in the ''[[Almagest]]''.<ref name="ley196312">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Ley
 |first=Willy
 |date=December 1963
 |title=The Names of the Constellations
 |department=For Your Information
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v22n02_1963-12#page/n46/mode/1up
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=90–99
}}</ref> Its first certain appearance was on a globe created by the cartographer [[Petrus Plancius]] in 1612 or 1613<ref>{{Cite web |title=Le costellazioni di Petrus Plancius |url=http://www.atlascoelestis.com/desu%20Plancius.htm |access-date=2023-04-14 |website=Atlas Coelestis}}</ref> and it was later charted by German astronomer [[Jakob Bartsch]] as Unicornu on his star chart of 1624.<ref>
{{cite web
 | title= Jacob Bartsch and seven new constellations
 | last= Ridpath
 | first= Ian
 | url= http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/bartsch.html
}}
</ref>

German astronomers [[Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers]] and [[Ludwig Ideler]]<ref>
{{cite book |last=Ideler |first=Ludwig |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxLA4xSXWy8C |title=Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung der Sternnamen: Ein Beytrag zur Geschichte des gestirnten Himmels |publisher=Berlin |year=1809 |pages=354..355}}
</ref>
indicate (according to [[Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning|Richard Hinckley Allen]]'s allegations) that the constellation may be older, quoting an astrological work<ref>
{{cite book
 | title= Himmels Lauffs Wirkung und natürliche Influenz der Planeten Gestirne und Zeichen aufs Grund der Astronomie
 | publisher= Frankfurt
 | year= 1564
}}
</ref>
from 1564 that mentioned "the second horse between the [[Gemini (constellation)|Twins]] and the [[Cancer (constellation)|Crab]] has many stars, but not very bright"; these references may ultimately be due to the 13th century Scotsman [[Michael Scot]], but refer to a horse and not a unicorn, and its position does not quite match. [[Joseph Scaliger]] (died 1609) is reported{{sfn|Allen|1899|page= 290}} to have found Monoceros on an ancient [[Persian Empire|Persian]] sphere. Astronomer [[Camille Flammarion]] (died 1925) believed that a former constellation, Neper (the "Auger"), occupied the part of that sky now deemed Monoceros and [[Microscopium]], but this is disputed.{{sfn|Allen|1899|page= 290}}

Chinese asterisms Sze Fūh, the Four Great Canals; Kwan Kew; and Wae Choo, the Outer Kitchen, all lay within the boundaries of Monoceros.{{sfn|Allen|1899|page= 290}}