SkyEye - Puppis

The Stern (of the Argo)

Abbreviation: Pup
Genitive: Puppis
Origin: Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille

The constellation of Puppis

The Argo was the ship of Jason and the Argonauts who sought the Golden Fleece in Greek myth. The huge constellation Argo Navis was devised by the Greeks to honour this vessel. In the mid-eighteenth century, French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille divided this unwieldy constellation into three smaller pieces: Carina, the keel of the ship; Puppis, the stern or poop deck; and Vela, the sails. However, he retained the Bayer designations of the original constellation so only Carina has an α star, only Vela has a γ star, etc.

Notable Features

Designation	Name	Description
	π Puppids	This April shower is so young that it has been observed only since 1972. These meteors are very slow but bright, and the activity levels vary from year to year. Comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup is associated with this shower.

ζ Pup	Naos
ξ Pup	Azmidi	This star sometimes appears as Asmidiske in older star atlases and catalogues.
ρ Pup	Tureis
HD 48265	Nosaxa	This eighth-magnitude star is known to have at least one exoplanet.
WASP-161	Tislit	This eleventh-magnitude star is known to have at least one exoplanet.

M46		Binoculars are the best way to explore this bright open cluster
M47		Another open cluster, it is situated very close to M46 so that both of them will fit into the same wide-angle binocular and telescope field.
M93		This open cluster is another good binocular object.
C71		This open cluster is so compact and so distant that it resembles a globular cluster except under high magnifications.
NGC 2451		This constellation is rich in open star clusters and NGC 2451 is visible to the naked eye. It is actually two open clusters which lie along the same line of sight.