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Vela and Carina
"The Sails and Keel of
Argo Navis"
In Greek mythology, Argo Navis was the ship that Jason sailed to recover the "Golden Fleece". Great were the dangers faced by Jason and the Argonauts, for they had to sail to the edge of the world and battled many strange creatures. It is fitting that this constellation appears to rise from the south-east, "sail" just over the seas in the south before passing from the gaze of men, over the south-western horizon. The original constellation was huge, and in the 1700's, Argo Navis was broken into four smaller constellations; Carina "The Keel", Vela "The Sails, Pyxis "The Compass", and Pupis "The Poop Deck" by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille.
This month I will concentrate on two of these constellations, Vela and Carina. Long before I owned a telescope I used one of the most useful instruments that any observer could own, a pair of binoculars. From this time of year until mid winter I would look at this most amazing area of the sky. I did not even own a star chart, and this is the only thing I would change if I could travel back in time. I had no idea what I was looking at, all I knew was this area was full of fuzzy regions that my binos would show as star clusters of various sizes and densities.
The first thing that most people notice is the cross shape that is prominent, and mistakenly believe that it is Crucis, the "Southern Cross", though that constellation rises later and contains brighter stars. For many years I had labored under the impression that this was Vela, and it was only until acquiring star charts did I realize my mistake, however this asterism is so plainly visible that I still find it hard to think of it any other way.
Click the image below to display a map with some of the brighter objects labeled.
