Musca
Position in the Sky
Musca was sort-of named by Abbé
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. In fact, this constellation has a long
history of various names. It was first named Apis (the Bee) by Johann Bayer in 1603. Edmond Halley,
of Halley's Comet fame, renamed it Musca Apis (the Fly Bee). Then, de
Lacaille called it Musca Australis (the Southern Fly) to distinguish
it from the Northern Fly. When the Northern Fly was merged with Aries
by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1929, Musca
Austrailis was given its modern, shortened name.
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