Puppis
constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere
Puppis ("stern") is a constellation in the southern sky. It was originally part of the traditional constellation of Argo Navis (Argo is the ship of Jason and the Argonauts), which was divided into three parts, the other two being Carina (the keel and hull), and Vela (the sails). Puppis is the largest of the three constellations in square degrees. It is one of the 88 modern constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union.
History
The constellation of Argo Navis is recorded in Greek texts, derived from ancient Egypt around 1000 BC. According to Plutarch, its equivalent in Egyptian astronomy was the "Boat of Osiris".
As Argo Navis was roughly 28% larger than the next largest constellation, Hydra, it was sub-divided into three sections in 1752 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, including Puppis, which he referred to as "Argûs in puppi". Despite the division, Lacaille kept a single set of Bayer designations for the whole constellation, Argo. Therefore, Carina has the α, β, and ε, Vela has γ and δ, Puppis has ζ, and so on. In 1844, John Herschel proposed complete dividing Argo Navis in accordance with Lacaille's divisions. However, the constellation continued to be used into the 20th century, and officially received a three-letter designation alongside its divisions in 1922.
“Puppis” enters the record as constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Puppis, constellation and southern can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Puppis” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Puppis, constellation and southern provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q9251. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1000, 1752, 1844 and 1922.
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This entry incorporates text from “Puppis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.