Crumby's Telescope Tomfoolery Notes

Lacerta is the Latin spell for lizard, maybe. Modern taxonomy of the herpetological variety has alas, bounced the generic spell Lacerta in favor of Hemidactylus or Eumyces for the formerly titled Lacerta in Tejas. It's one of those, the more you know things, maybe.

The great lizard of the CB skies is spelled Lacerta though, to this day, thanks again to Hevelius. Hevelius knew, though he didn't actually communicate this interesting information to anyone during his lifetime, that the Turks, on their way to plunder Vienna, were picking up all kinds of loot, slowing their progress. Perhaps the most prized loot of all was lizards. The Turks prized lizards above all other biota and maintained a flourishing trade in exotic pets in the Istanbul markets. So the Turkish soldiers were exhausting themselves on the way to Vienna catching lizards for the pet trade. By the time King Scutum, er, I mean King Sobieski, intercepted the Turk's march, the Turk's were encumbered with so many valuable pet lizards that they were more concerned by that time with protecting their valuable lizards than with the tedious march to Vienna. So when King Sobieski attacked, the Turk's beat a hasty retreat, thus saving their lizards.

Hevelius named the Constellation Lacerta then, Lacerta, in tribute to the presumptive pet lizards that helped save Vienna from the Turks. But as Hevelius aged, and burdened with the grief of his burned up telescope, he sometimes mixed up Lacerta with Stellario, a type of newt.

There are some interesting multiple stars in the neighborhood of 8 Lacerta and also around nearby 8 Andromeda.