Lacerta, the Lizard, is one of these dim and rather pointless constellations introduced by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1687 (also see Lynx and Leo Minor, February 2025). In this case, his aim was to fill the empty space between Cygnus, Andromeda and Pegasus. He gave it the alternative name Stellio (after a specific species of lizard) which quickly fell into disuse. The brightest star was given this name by IUPAC in 2024 (cf. Anser in Vulpecula, August 2025). It is magnitude 3.8 and all the other stars are fourth and fifth magnitude. The only part one can hope to make out in a light-polluted area is the lizard’s head which is diamond shaped.

There is just one deep-sky object in Lacerta which is easily seen, namely NGC 7243 [1] or Caldwell 16, which is a rather spread out star cluster next to the diamond shape. It is about 100 million years old and about 2,800 light years away from us. There is also one double star worth observing. 8 Lacertae [2] is an optical pair of hot B spectral type stars which are seen as white with a separation of 22.5 arcseconds. They two stars are of similar brightness (mag. 5.7 and 6.3). Lacerta also contains the interesting object BL Lacertae [3], once thought to be a variable star but now known to be a quasar. It is the prototype of the BL Lac objects and the broader category of energetic blazers (a name derived from BL Lac). But at magnitude 15, it is too dim for small telescopes.