Puppis constellation is located in the southern hemisphere. It represents the stern of a ship.
Puppis used to be part of the much larger constellation Argo Navis, which represented the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed to get the Golden Fleece, before the constellation was divided into several smaller ones: Carina (the keel), Vela (the sails) and Puppis (the stern).
Argo Navis was first catalogued by the astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. It was divided into the smaller constellations by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1752.
Puppis is a relatively large constellation which contains many notable deep sky features, including three Messier objects – the open clusters M46, M47 and M93 – and the planetary nebulae NGC 2438, NGC 2440 and NGC 2467 (the Skull and Crossbones Nebula).
FACTS, LOCATION & MAP
Puppis is the 20th constellation in size, occupying an area of 673 square degrees. It lies in the second quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ2) and can be seen at latitudes between +40° and -90°. The neighboring constellations are Carina, Canis Major, Columba, Hydra, Monoceros, Pictor, Pyxis and Vela.
Puppis belongs to the Heavenly Waters family of constellations, along with Carina, Columba, Delphinus, Equuleus, Eridanus, Piscis Austrinus, Pyxis, and Vela.
Puppis contains three Messier objects – Messier 46 (M46, NGC 2437), Messier 47 (M47, NGC 2422) and Messier 93 (M93, NGC 2447) – and has six stars with confirmed planets. The brightest star in the constellation is Naos, Zeta Puppis, with an apparent magnitude of 2.21. There are three meteor showers associated with the constellation: the Pi Puppids, the Zeta Puppids and the Puppid-Velids.
MYTH
Puppis is one of the three constellations that used to form the Greek constellation Argo Navis, which represented the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed to get the Golden Fleece. The French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille divided the Argo Navis constellation into the three smaller ones – Carina, Puppis and Vela – in the 18th century. Puppis is the largest of the three.
Neither Puppis nor Vela have stars designated Alpha and Beta, as these stars were allocated to Carina constellation.
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