(
Astronomy)
Puppis, or the Stern, is one of the larger
constellations of the southern hemisphere, and is
the largest of four parts (the other parts are Carina,
Pyxis and Vela) which make the ancient
constellation Argo Navis.
When Argo Navis was split no reassignment of the star
labels took place, so Puppis lacks stars labelled
alpha, beta, gamma, and so on. The first star with a
Greek label is Zeta Puppis, an interesting
supergiant.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way runs through this part
of the sky making Puppis an interesting region for
observations, and several rich star fields
and clusters can be found.