Noctua (constellation)

Noctua (Latin: owl) was a constellation near the tail of Hydra in the southern celestial hemisphere, but is no longer recognized.

[1] It was introduced by Alexander Jamieson in his 1822 work, A Celestial Atlas, and appeared in a derived collection of illustrated cards, Urania's Mirror.

[2] Noctua also appeared in Elijah Burritt's very popular Atlas of the Heavens through most of the 19th century.

[3][4] The French astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier had introduced a bird on Hydra's tail as the constellation Solitaire, named for the extinct flightless bird, the Rodrigues solitaire, but the image was that of a rock thrush which had been classified in the genus Turdus, giving rise to the constellation name Turdus Solitarius, the solitary thrush.

[4] The globular star cluster NGC 5694 is located just below the tail of the former Noctua within the bounds of modern Hydra.