Star Tales - Puppis (ianridpath.com)

borders

excerpt

The largest of the three sections into which the ancient constellation of Argo Navis, the ship of the Argonauts, was divided by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in his catalogue of the southern stars published in 1756. In that catalogue he gave it the French name Pouppe du Navire. His final catalogue, Coelum australe stelliferum, appeared in 1763 containing the same subdivisions but with Latin rather than French names.

formed out of

Star Tales - Argo Navis (ianridpath.com) Argo (Ἀργώ in Greek) is a constellation that is not so much disused as dismantled. It was one of the 48 constellations known to Greek astronomers, as listed by Ptolemy in the Almagest, but the 18th-century French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille found it large and unwieldy and so divided it into three parts: Carina, the Keel or body; Puppis, the Poop (i.e. stern); and Vela, the Sails. Were the three parts to be reunited, the resulting figure would be almost 28% larger in area than the current largest constellation, Hydra.

history of

Puppis

random

Iron Age

size ranking

20

tags

Ian Ridpath’s Star Tales (ianridpath.com)

website

http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/puppis.html