Quadrans Muralis

File:Quadrans muralis map.png

Map of the obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis in relation to the modern constellations

File:Sidney Hall - Urania's Mirror - Bootes, Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices, and Quadrans Muralis.jpg

Quadrans Muralis can be seen at the top left of this 1825 star chart from Urania's Mirror.

Quadrans Muralis (Latin for mural quadrant) was a constellation created by the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande in 1795. It depicted a wall-mounted quadrant with which he and his nephew Michel Lefrançois de Lalande had charted the celestial sphere, and was named Le Mural in the French atlas.<ref name=ridpathQ/> It was between the constellations of Boötes and Draco, near the tail of Ursa Major,<ref name=ridpathQL/> containing stars between β Bootis (Nekkar) and η Ursae Majoris (Alkaid).<ref name=moore2015/>

Johann Elert Bode converted its name to Latin as Quadrans Muralis and shrank the constellation a little in his 1801 Uranographia star atlas, to avoid it clashing with neighboring constellations.<ref name=ridpathQ/>

In 1922, Quadrans Muralis was omitted when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formalized its list of officially recognized constellations.<ref name=iau/> Template:Clear left

Notable features

• 44 Boötis was the brightest star of Lalande's version of the constellation.<ref name=ridpathQ/> It was named Quadrans by the IAU Working Group on Star Names in 2025.<ref name="IAU-CSN-new">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• CL Draconis was the brightest star of Bode's version of the constellation.<ref name=ridpathQ/>
• The variable star BP Boötis was a member of the constellation.
• 39 Boötis is a double star that was transferred by Lalande into Quadrans.<ref name=smyth/>
• The Quadrantid meteor shower is still named after the obsolete constellation.