Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1713-1762)
Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille was an astronomer who had the
great honor of naming 15 of the 88 constellations in the sky. He
spent 1750-1754 studying the stars of the southern hemisphere from the
Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost part of Africa. In his years
there, he was said to have observed over 10,000 stars using just his
1/2-inch refractor.
de Lacaille named the following southern constellations:
He also renamed the constellation
Musca.