Editing Musca (section)

== History ==
[[File:BayerMusca.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Musca (as Apis) can be seen in the upper right of this extract from Bayer's ''[[Uranometria]]'' of 1603]]
Musca was one of the 12 constellations established by the astronomer Petrus Plancius from the observations of the southern sky by the Dutch explorers [[Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser]] and [[Frederick de Houtman]], who had sailed on the first Dutch trading expedition, known as the ''[[First Dutch Expedition to Indonesia|Eerste Schipvaart]]'', to the [[East Indies]]. De Houtman included it in his southern star catalogue in 1598 under the Dutch name ''De Vlieghe'', "The Fly".<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/startales1c.html#houtman | title=Frederick de Houtman's Catalogue|last1=Ridpath|first1=Ian|publisher=self-published  |work=Star Tales | access-date= 20 December 2013}}</ref> They assigned four stars to the constellation, with a star that would be later designated as Beta Muscae marking the head, Gamma the body, and Alpha and Delta the left and right wings, respectively.<ref>{{cite journal | title = On Frederick de Houtman's Catalogue of Southern Stars, and the Origin of the Southern Constellations | author= Knobel, Edward B. | author-link= Edward Knobel |journal = [[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]] | volume= 77| issue= 5 | pages=414–32 [426] | bibcode = 1917MNRAS..77..414K |date=1917 | doi=10.1093/mnras/77.5.414| doi-access= free }}</ref> It first appeared on a 35-cm-diameter  (14-in) [[globe#Celestial|celestial globe]] published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius, though was unnamed.<ref name=musca/> The first depiction of this constellation in a [[Celestial cartography|celestial atlas]] was in the German cartographer [[Johann Bayer]]'s ''Uranometria'' of 1603,<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/bayer-southern.html | title=Johann Bayer's Southern Star Chart|last1=Ridpath|first1=Ian|author-link=Ian Ridpath|publisher=self-published |work=Star Tales | access-date= 20 December 2013}}</ref><!-- cites previous three sentences --> though Bayer termed it Apis— "the Bee", a name by which it was known for the next two centuries. A 1603 celestial globe by [[Willem Blaeu]] depicts it as providing nourishment for the nearby constellation [[Chamaeleon]]—its tongue trying to catch the insect.<ref name=musca>{{cite web| url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/musca.html | title=Musca |last1=Ridpath|first1=Ian|publisher=self-published  |work=Star Tales | access-date= 20 December 2013}}</ref>

The French explorer and astronomer [[Nicolas Louis de Lacaille]] called it ''la Mouche'' on the 1756 version of his [[planisphere]] of the southern skies. [[Jean Nicolas Fortin|Jean Fortin]] retained the French name in 1776 for his ''Atlas Céleste'', while Lacaille [[latin]]ised the name for his revised ''Coelum Australe Stelliferum'' in 1763.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/lacaille.html | title=Lacaille's Southern Planisphere of 1756|last1=Ridpath|first1=Ian|author-link=Ian Ridpath|publisher=self-published  |work=Star Tales | access-date= 20 December 2013}}</ref> Lacaille renamed it to ''Musca Australis'', the Southern Fly—''Australis'', since it counterparted the now [[former constellations|discarded constellation]] of [[Musca Borealis]] composed of a few stars in [[Aries (constellation)|Aries]], and to avoid [[Apus|confusion with Apus]]. Today, the name is simply Musca.<ref name="Horvatin" /> It is the only official constellation depicting an insect.<ref name="streicher">{{cite web | last = Streicher  | first = Magda  | date = April 2006  | title = Musca—The Heavenly Fly  | publisher = The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa  | work = Deepsky Delights  | url =http://www.mnassa.org.za/html/Apr2006/2006MNASSA..65..Apr..56.pdf |pages = 56–59  | access-date = 21 November 2013}}</ref>

The [[Kalapalo people]] of [[Mato Grosso]] state in Brazil called Alpha and Beta Muscae (along with [[Beta Crucis|Beta]] and [[Kappa Crucis (star)|Kappa Crucis]]) ''Kutsu anangagï'' "[[Ornate Hawk-Eagle]]'s double flutes".<ref name="basso87">{{cite book|last=Basso|first=Ellen B. |title=In Favor of Deceit: A Study of Tricksters in an Amazonian Society|publisher=University of Arizona Press|location=Tucson, Arizona|date=1987|page=[https://archive.org/details/infavorofdeceits0000bass/page/360 360]|isbn=0-8165-1022-9|url=https://archive.org/details/infavorofdeceits0000bass|url-access=registration}}</ref> The [[Wardaman people]] of the Northern Territory in Australia perceived the main stars of Musca as a ceremonial boomerang, part of the Central Arena—a sacred area surrounding the constellation Crux that depicts the lightning creation beings and where they teach Wardaman customs; Alpha and Beta also signified a ceremonial headband, while [[Gamma Muscae|Gamma]] and [[Delta Muscae|Delta]] represented two armbands.<ref>{{cite book  | last1 = Harney  | first1 = Bill Yidumduma   | last2 = Cairns  | first2 = Hugh C.  | title = Dark Sparklers  | publisher = Hugh C. Cairns  | location = Merimbula, New South Wales  | date = 2004  | orig-year = 2003  | edition = Revised  | isbn = 0-9750908-0-1 |pages=202, 208}}</ref><!-- cites two previous sentences --> In central Australia, the [[Upper Arrernte language|Arrernte]] and [[Luritja dialect|Luritja]] peoples living in on a mission in [[Hermannsburg, Northern Territory|Hermannsburg]] viewed the sky as divided between them, east of the Milky Way representing Arrernte camps and west denoting Luritja camps. The stars of Musca, along with [[Fomalhaut]], [[Alpha Pavonis]], and [[Alpha Gruis|Alpha]] and [[Beta Gruis]], were all claimed by the Arrernte.<ref name="noctuary">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Diane|title=Night skies of aboriginal Australia: a noctuary|publisher=University of Sydney|location=Darlington, New South Wales|date=1998|pages=[https://archive.org/details/nightskiesofabor0000john/page/70 70–72]|isbn=1-86451-356-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/nightskiesofabor0000john/page/70}}</ref>