Home ConstellationPuppis

Puppis



Puppis is visible in the southern sky in the months around January. The Milky Way runs through it and so it is home to numerous of open clusters, including more than 20 which are brighter than tenth magnitude.

Until the eighteenth century, Puppis was part of the much larger ancient constellation of Argo Navis, listed by Ptolemy among his 48 constellations in the second century. Argo Navis covered over 4% of the sky, an area 25% larger than the biggest modern constellation, Hydra.

In 1763, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille divided it up into three parts: Carina, Puppis and Vela. As a result of this relatively recent subdivision, the Bayer designations (α, β, γ, etc) are split between the stars of the three constellations.

In classical mythology, Argo Navis was the ship sailed by Jason and the Argonauts on their voyage to recover the golden fleece. Puppis, the Poop Deck, was originally part of an over-large constellation, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, Argo Navis, which centuries after its initial description, was divided into three parts, the other two being Carina (the keel and hull), and Vela (the sails of the ship). Puppis is the largest of the three constellations in square degrees.

The Indian name for Puppis is ನೌಕಾ ಪೃಷ್ಠ (Nauka Prushtha)

Puppis contains:

View Puppis in 3D


Source: Wikipedia, in-the-sky.org
Image Courtesy: Sky&Telescope & IAU, Illustration Images linked from Urania's Mirror on Wikmedia Commons by Sidney Hall

Share: