Puppis, the Stern, is the largest surviving piece of the ancient ship Argo, a rich southern constellation in the Milky Way, home to the blazing star Naos.
At a glance
| stars in the figure | 11 |
|---|---|
| not placed by measurement | 3 Puppis (no usable parallax; left out of the depth below) |
| nearest star of the figure | Tureis, 63.5 light-years (19.5 pc) |
| farthest star of the figure | Omicron Puppis, 1,420 light-years (435 pc) |
| depth | the farthest is 22 × farther than the nearest |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Puppis
Puppis was once the stern of Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, a single vast constellation in Ptolemy’s list. Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille split the ship into the Keel, the Stern and the Sails, and the pieces kept Argo’s original Greek letters, which is why Puppis has no Alpha or Beta. The figure as drawn here borrows Canopus from Carina and a star of Vela.
Its most remarkable star is Naos, one of the hottest and most luminous stars visible to the naked eye, a blue supergiant blowing off a powerful wind. The Milky Way runs through Puppis, rich with open clusters: M46 and M47 lie side by side, with the planetary nebula NGC 2438 seen against M46. Puppis A, a supernova remnant, glows in X-rays.
Puppis is best seen on evenings in the southern summer, the northern winter, low in the south from mid-northern latitudes and high from the southern hemisphere.
What you see in the piece
With CONSTELLATIONS (N) on and the HUMAN EYE view (E) left behind, the stern breaks apart into its depths: Tureis sits close to the Sun, Naos and Omicron Puppis far behind it, along a line of sight that runs out across the Galaxy’s disc.
Measured or modelled
3 Puppis, a supergiant, has no usable parallax, so its distance is not measured: the piece pins it at a stand-in distance only so its line can still draw, and the card leaves it out of the nearest, farthest and depth.
Questions
Why does Puppis have no Alpha star?
Puppis was part of the old constellation Argo Navis. When Lacaille divided the ship, the pieces kept Argo’s Greek letters, and Alpha and Beta went to Carina.
How far away are the stars of Puppis?
Of the stars with a measured distance, they range from Tureis, 63.5 light-years (19.5 pc), to Omicron Puppis, 1,420 light-years (435 pc): the farthest is 22 × farther than the nearest. 3 Puppis has no usable parallax, so its distance is not measured.