(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.