The story behind the name: Pictor is one of the modern constellations in the Southern Hemisphere named by Abbe Nicholas Louis de Lacaille. He is credited for creating and naming 15 of the 88 internationally accepted constellations during his stay at the observatory at the Cape of Good Hope between 1750 and 1754. The constellation was originally called Equuleus Pictoris, the Painter's Easel. Equuleus, which means "small horse", referred to the wooden sawhorse-like stand which formed the common type of easel in Lacaille's time. The name was later shortened to Pictor. Although the constellation does not contain any bright stars or many objects of interest in visible light, it does contain the celestial object known as Pictor A, a spectacular source in radio and X-ray wavelengths.

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