Argo Navis (Constellation)

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Arturo
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Argo Navis (Constellation)

Post by Arturo » Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:16 pm

Argo Navis (or simply Argo) was a large constellation in the southern sky that has since been divided into three constellations. It represented the Argo, the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts in Greek mythology. The abbreviation was "Arg" and the genitive was "Argus Navis".

See Topic: “Argonauts”.

In modern astronomy, a constellation is a specific area of the celestial sphere as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). These areas had their origins in star patterns from which the constellations take their names. There are 88 officially recognized constellations, covering the entire sky. When astronomers say an object is "in" a given constellation, they mean it is within the boundaries of one of these defined areas of sky.

The Late Latin term constellātiō can be translated as "set of stars". The term was first used in astrology, of asterisms that supposedly exerted influence, attested in Ammianus (4th century). In English the term was used from the 14th century, also in astrology, of conjunctions of planets. The modern astronomical sense of "area of the celestial sphere around a specific asterism" dates to the mid-16th century.

Due to precession, the stars of Argo have been shifted farther south since Classical times, and far fewer of its stars are visible today from the latitude of the Mediterranean.

The original constellation was found low near the southern horizon of the Mediterranean sky. The ship became visible in springtime and sailed westward, skimming along the southern horizon (as depicted on the stamp). The ancient Greeks identified it with the ship sailed by Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece.

See Topic: “Argo (Jason)”

Argo Navis is the only one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy that is no longer officially recognized as a constellation. It was unwieldy due to its enormous size: were it still considered a single constellation, it would be the largest of all. In 1752, the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille subdivided it into Carina (the keel, or the hull, of the ship), Puppis (the poop deck, or stern), and Vela (the sails) (as seen on the first picture). When Argo Navis was split, Lacaille did not retain Bayer's designations (which bore scant relationship to the actual positions of the stars), but like Bayer he did use a single Greek-letter sequence for the three parts: Carina has the α, β and ε, Vela has γ and δ, Puppis has ζ, and so on. (For the dimmer stars, however, Lacaille used a separate Latin-letter sequence for each part.)

The constellation Pyxis (“the mariner's compass”, can be seen on the third picture) occupies an area which in antiquity was considered part of Argo's mast. Some authors state that Pyxis was part of the Greek conception of Argo Navis, but magnetic compasses were unknown in ancient Greek times. Lacaille considered it a separate constellation, representing one of the modern scientific instruments he placed among the constellations (like Microscopium and Telescopium); he assigned it Bayer designations separate from those of Carina, Puppis and Vela, and his illustration shows an isolated instrument not related to the figure of Argo.

Marshall Islands 1992, S.G.?, Scott: 420.

Source: Wikipedia.
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