Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A constellation in the equatorial region of the sky near Leo and Hydra.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bronze coin of the ancient Roman republic, in value one sixth of the as. (See as.)
  • noun [capitalized] In astronomy, a constellation introduced by Hevelius in 1690.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Rom. Antiq.) A Roman coin, the sixth part of an as.
  • noun (Astron.) A constellation on the equator south of Leo; the Sextant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun astronomy A dim spring constellation of the northern sky, said to resemble a sextant. It lies south of the constellation of Leo.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin sextāns, sextant; see sextant.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named by the astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1690. From Latin sextans, a "sextant" (nautical neasuring implement)

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Sextans.

Examples

  • The little asterism Sextans, the Sextant, lies in the region between

    A Field Book of the Stars William Tyler Olcott 1904

  • Stargazers should turn their eyes to the constellations of Leo, Sextans and Hydra to glimpse this rare visitor.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post News Editors 2012

  • The Dwarf galaxies Abundances and Radial-velocities Team used the FLAMES instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the spectra of over 2000 individual giant stars in four of our galactic neighbours, the Fornax, Sculptor, Sextans and Carina dwarf galaxies.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

  • The Dwarf galaxies Abundances and Radial-velocities Team used the FLAMES instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the spectra of over 2000 individual giant stars in four of our galactic neighbors, the Fornax, Sculptor, Sextans and Carina dwarf galaxies.

    Scientific Blogging News Account 2010

  • The Dwarf galaxies Abundances and Radial-velocities Team used the FLAMES instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the spectra of over 2000 individual giant stars in four of our galactic neighbours, the Fornax, Sculptor, Sextans and Carina dwarf galaxies.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

  • The Dwarf galaxies Abundances and Radial-velocities Team used the FLAMES instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the spectra of over 2000 individual giant stars in four of our galactic neighbours, the Fornax, Sculptor, Sextans and Carina dwarf galaxies.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

  • The Dwarf galaxies Abundances and Radial-velocities Team used the FLAMES instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the spectra of over 2000 individual giant stars in four of our galactic neighbours, the Fornax, Sculptor, Sextans and Carina dwarf galaxies.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories PhysOrg Team 2010

  • The Dwarf galaxies Abundances and Radial-velocities Team used the FLAMES instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the spectra of over 2000 individual giant stars in four of our galactic neighbours, the Fornax, Sculptor, Sextans and Carina dwarf galaxies.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

  • The Dwarf galaxies Abundances and Radial-velocities Team used the FLAMES instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the spectra of over 2000 individual giant stars in four of our galactic neighbours, the Fornax, Sculptor, Sextans and Carina dwarf galaxies.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories PhysOrg Team 2010

  • The Dwarf galaxies Abundances and Radial-velocities Team used the FLAMES instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the spectra of over 2000 individual giant stars in four of our galactic neighbours, the Fornax, Sculptor, Sextans and Carina dwarf galaxies.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.