Lacerta
What is Lacerta?
Constellations· Autumn evenings (N) · zigzag between Cygnus and Cassiopeia. A small lizard squeezed into the gap between Cygnus and Cassiopeia. Its zigzag of 4th-magnitude stars is nicknamed "Little Cassiopeia". BL Lacertae, the blazar that gave its name to a whole class of active galaxies, lies here. Zoom in east of Deneb in the Sky view.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Lacerta is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=con:Lacerta — location and time set automatically, no login.
Stars of the figure
| Star | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Alpha Lacertae | 3.8 |
The 1 brightest of the 2 stars used in the figure (1 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.
Constellation basics
| Season | autumn evenings (N) |
|---|---|
| Brightest star | Alpha Lacertae (3.8) |
| How to find | the small zigzag between Deneb and Cassiopeia's W |
| Area rank | 88 |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Frequently asked
- When can I see Lacerta?
- autumn evenings (N).
- How do I find Lacerta?
- the small zigzag between Deneb and Cassiopeia's W.
- What is the brightest star in Lacerta?
- Alpha Lacertae, magnitude 3.8.
- Where is Lacerta in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
The constellations that stood before the lizard — a sceptre and a king's glory
Before Hevelius drew the lizard in 1687, other constellations occupied this narrow strip of sky. In 1679 the Frenchman Royer placed here the Sceptre and Hand of Justice in honour of Louis XIV, and in 1787 Bode set the Glory of Frederick, for the king of Prussia, in the same place. Constellations honouring monarchs vanished as politics changed, and only the lizard survived to enter the official 88 in 1930.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries astronomers commonly invented constellations for their patrons: Charles's Oak, the Sceptre of Brandenburg, Poniatowski's Bull and others appeared on charts and were later erased. Lacerta is the case in which a nameless animal won that contest, showing that a name tied to no particular person lasts longest. The little zigzag between Cygnus and Cassiopeia is also the site of vanished constellations.
The constellation in depth
Lacerta was created by Hevelius in 1687 in the narrow gap between Cygnus, Andromeda and Cassiopeia — he noted that a lizard was about the only animal that would fit. Later attempts to rededicate the stars to Louis XIV or Frederick the Great all faded, and the lizard remained.
Its stars are faint, 3.8 to 4.5 magnitude, but their W-like zigzag earned the nickname "Little Cassiopeia". The most famous object is BL Lacertae: first catalogued as a variable star, it turned out in 1968 to be the core of a galaxy 900 million light-years away firing a jet toward us, and it became the prototype of the "BL Lac objects", or blazars. The open cluster NGC 7243 is a binocular target.
On September–November evenings look nearly overhead, between Deneb in Cygnus and the W of Cassiopeia. From a city almost nothing shows, so enable constellation lines in the Sky view to learn the spot, then hunt the zigzag from a dark site.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.