Camaleón
Chamaeleon (Chamaeleontis)
Chamaeleon, the Chameleon, is a small, faint constellation near the south celestial pole. Created by Dutch navigators in the late 16th century, it represents the color-changing lizard native to Africa and Madagascar. Though dim, the constellation contains several interesting deep-sky objects and lies in a region with many nearby young stars.
📜 Mitología
Chamaeleon is one of the twelve constellations introduced by Petrus Plancius based on observations by Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman during their expedition to the East Indies (1595-1597). It first appeared on a celestial globe in 1598 and in Johann Bayer's 'Uranometria' in 1603. The constellation honors the remarkable chameleon, which amazed European explorers with its ability to change color and its independently moving eyes.
💡 Datos curiosos
- ✦Chamaeleon is circumpolar from most of the Southern Hemisphere
- ✦The Chamaeleon I dark cloud is an active star-forming region about 520 light-years away
- ✦Eta Chamaeleontis is the brightest member of a young stellar cluster discovered in 1999