- The celestial chameleon, named after the colour-changing lizard, is one of the constellations representing exotic animals introduced by the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman when they charted the southern skies in 1595–97. These new southern constellations were first shown on a globe by their fellow Dutchman Petrus Plancius in 1598 and were rapidly adopted by other map makers such as Johann Bayer, since no other observations of the far southern skies were then available. Chamaeleon lies near the south celestial pole, in close pursuit of Musca, the fly.