Constellation Puppis (Stern)
Properties
Puppis, the aft deck of the large ship Argo Navis sailing down the Milky Way, lies east of the constellation Canis Maior. Thanks to its location in the band of the Milky Way, the constellation contains a lot of open star clusters. The area of this constellation is 673 square degrees and the center culminates around midnight on January 9th. [9, 15]
| ζ Pup | Naos, Suhail Hadar |
| ξ Pup | Azmidiske, Asmidiske |
| HR 2948 | Markab, Markeb |
| IAU Name | Puppis |
| IAU Genitive | Puppis |
| IAU Abbr. | Pup |
| English Name | Stern |
| Opposition | 13 January |
| Season (47° N) | November … February |
| Right Ascension | 06h 03m 00s … 08h 27m 58s |
| Declination | -51° 06' 09" … -11° 15' 08" |
| Area | 673 deg2 |
| Neighbours (N↻) | Mon, CMa, Col, Pic, Car, Vel, Pyx, Hya |
Deep-Sky Object Descriptions
Catalogues
Mythology and History
Puppis is the largest contiguous part that Lacaille has left of the original constellation Argo Navis. The other parts are Carina, Pyxis and Vela. Argo Navis was the ship of the Thessalian hero Jason and his crew, the Argonauts, from the Greek legend. They drove it to Colchis, looking for the fleece of the Aries. It is said that the ship could speak and prophesy.
Die hellsten Sterne der vier Teil-Sternbilder des Argo Navis besitzen immer noch eine durchgehende Bezeichnung mit griechischen Buchstaben, da Johann Bayer das Sternbild vor Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in seine Uranometria aufgenommen hatte. [6, 7, 10]