Carina constellation is located in the southern sky. Its name means “the keel” (keel of a ship) in Latin.
Carina used to be part of the much larger constellation Argo Navis, along with the constellations Puppis (the stern) and Vela (the sails).
Argo Navis was created by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. It was the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille who divided it into the three smaller constellations – Carina, Puppis and Vela – in the 18th century. The three smaller constellations were added to the official list of the modern constellations in the early 20th century, when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined the borders on the celestial sphere.
Carina contains the second brightest star in the night sky, Canopus, along with several other notable bright stars, among them Eta Carinae, surrounded by the famous Carina Nebula. Other famous deep sky objects in the constellation include the Theta Carinae Cluster (Southern Pleiades), the Wishing Well Cluster, the Diamond Cluster, and the open cluster NGC 3603.
FACTS, LOCATION & MAP
Carina is the 34th largest constellation in the sky, occupying an area of 494 square degrees. It lies in the second quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ2) and can be seen at latitudes between +20° and -90°. The neighboring constellations are Centaurus, Chamaeleon, Musca, Pictor, Puppis, Vela, and Volans.
Carina belongs to the Heavenly Waters family of constellations, along with Columba, Delphinus, Equuleus, Eridanus, Piscis Austrinus, Puppis, Pyxis, and Vela.
Carina has eight stars with known planets and does not contain any Messier objects. The brightest star in the constellation is Canopus, Alpha Carinae, which is the second brightest star in the sky. There are two meteor showers associated with the constellation: the Alpha Carinids and the Eta Carinids.
MYTH
Carina by itself is not associated with any myth in particular, but the larger constellation to which it used to belong – the Argo Navis – represented the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed to Colchis (western part of present-day Georgia, on the Black Sea) to get the Golden Fleece.
Argo Navis was one of the 48 constellations known to the Greeks and catalogued by Ptolemy. It occupied a vast area of space between the constellations Canis Major and Crux (the Southern Cross).
The constellation Pyxis (compass), created from stars that used to form the constellation Malus, which represented the ship’s mast in ancient times, was added near the ship later.
Carina represents the main body of Argo Navis and the star Canopus marks the blade on one of the ship’s steering oars.
The ship was named after its creator Argus, who built it under the orders of Athena, using timber from Mount Pelion. Athena fitted the ship with an oak beam from the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, believed to be the oldest Hellenic oracle. The oak beam, as the myth goes, was able to speak because it was part of an oracle.
When the ship was built, Jason and the Argonauts – 50 greatest Greek heroes, among them Heracles, Orpheus and the twins Castor and Polydeuces – set sail to Colchis. On the way, they faced the Clashing Rocks (Symplegades) that guarded the entrance to the Black Sea and crushed all passing ships between them. Argo Navis was said to be the first ship that passed between them and stayed in one piece. Once in Colchis, Jason and the Argonauts took the Golden Fleece from King Aeëtes and went back to Greece, where Jason beached the ship at Corinth and dedicated it to the sea god Poseidon.
Centuries later, Sir Isaac Newton suggested that the voyage of Argo Navis was commemorated in the sky in the 12 signs of the zodiac, but the connections are not quite obvious.
In another myth, the star Canopus was named after King Menelaus’ helmsman Canopus, who died of a snake bite in Egypt when Menelaus’ fleet, driven by a storm, landed there on the way back from Troy. Menelaus buried his helmsman with full honours and the site of Canopus’ grave became a city named after him, located at the mouth of the Nile. (The city is the present-day Abu Qir.)
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