(thing) by DataJunkie Wed Aug 15 2001 at 19:46:55
This is a constellation named by the French astronomer Nicolas Lacaille to honor physicist Robert Boyle's pneumatic machine for experiments with gases.

Antlia was called "Antlia Pneumatica", which means (I kid you not) "Air Pump", until 1930 when the International Astronomical Union codified the constellations. Antlia contains no named stars, none of which are brighter than the 4th magnitude.

All in all, a boring, useless constellation.

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(definition) by Webster 1913 Tue Dec 21 1999 at 21:50:28

Ant"li*a (#), n.; pl. Antilae (#). [L., a pump, Gr, hold of a ship] Zool.

The spiral tubular proboscis of lepidopterous insects. See Lepidoptera.

 

© Webster 1913.

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