Pronunciation:

(try-ANG-gu-lum ahs-TRAY-lee)

Abbreviation:

TrA

  Genitive:

Trianguli Australis 

Right Ascension:

16 hours

  Declination:

-65 degrees

Area in Square Degrees:

110

Crosses Meridian:

9 PM, July 5

Visible Between Latitudes:

15 and -90 degrees

The constellation Triangulum Australe, the southern triangle, is located in the southern hemisphere of the sky. It is completely visible at latitudes south of 20 degrees from April through June. It is a small constellation filling only 110 square degrees of the sky. This makes it the sixth smallest constellation in the night sky. The three bright stars that form the triangle have been called the "Three Patriarchs,” Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are so recognizable that they can be used to locate other neighboring constellations such as Apus in the south, Norma in the north, Circinus and Centaurus in the west, and Ara and Pavo to the east.

There is no mythology associated with Triangulum Australe. It is the smallest of the12 constellations named by the Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius to fill in the blanks in the southern sky. It was first depicted in Johan Bayer’s star atlas in 1603. It was originally called Triangulum Antarticus. The French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille called it le Triangle Austral ou le Niveau on his planisphere in 1756. It was described as a surveyor’s level. It was one of several constellations that represented surveyor’s tools. It was later described by astronomer Johann Bode as a level and given the name le Triangle Austral ou le Niveau.