The Keel (of the Argo)
| Abbreviation: | Car |
| Genitive: | Carinae |
| Origin: | Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, 1756 |
| Fully Visible: | 90°S – 14°N |
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 (1713–1762) 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.
Edmund Halley put the now-obsolete constellation Robur Carolinum right through the prow of the ship.
Notable Features
| Visible Named Stars | ||
|---|---|---|
| α Car | Canopus | This first magnitude star is often used for navigation by interplanetary spacecraft because of its isolation in the southern sky. It sometimes appears as Suhel (from the Arabic suhayl, an untranslated proper name) in older star atlases and catalogues. In Chinese astronomy, this star is known as Laoren, from Lăo Rén meaning 'the old man'. |
| β Car | Miaplacidus | This name is apparently a combination of Arabic and Latin, from miyāh (Arabic for 'waters') and placidus (Latin for 'calm'). |
| ε Car | Avior | This star was named by H.M. Nautical Almanac Office at the behest of the Royal Air Force. |
| ι Car | Aspidiske | This star is the southern pole star in 8090 CE when it is less than 0.2° away from the celestial pole. It sometimes appears as Tureis (from the Arabic al‑turais meaning 'the shield') in older star atlases and catalogues. |
| Other Interesting Stars | ||
| HD 63765 | Tapecue | This eighth-magnitude star is known to have at least one exoplanet. It is located not far from χ Car. |
| Deep Sky Objects | ||
| C90 | This planetary nebula was discovered by John Herschel on April Fools' Day in 1834. He initially thought he had discovered a new planet. A telescope is necessary to see this object which is numbered in the New General Catalogue as 2867. | |
| C91 | Wishing Well Cluster | Binoculars reveal the full glory of this open cluster (NGC 3532) although it is visible to the naked eye. |
| C92 | η Carinae Nebula | The famous η Carinae Nebula is a large, bright nebula surrounding the mysterious variable star η Car. The nebula can be seen with the naked eye and is often called NGC 3372. |
| C96 | Southern Beehive | This is another open cluster and best viewed with binoculars. It is also catalogued as NGC 2516. |
| C102 | Southern Pleiades | Like its more famous counterpart in the northern hemisphere, binoculars reveal many more stars in this open cluster than the naked eye. The star θ Car is the brightest member of the cluster. It is also called IC 2602. |
| NGC 3114 | This sparse open cluster can be difficult to spot as it lies amongst a great many field stars from the Milky Way. | |
Copyright © 1995–2023 by L.M. Stockman and David Harper