Argo Navis was a large southern
constellation representing the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts. It is the only one of
Ptolemy's list of 48 constellations which is no longer officially recognised as a constellation, having been broken up by
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille into
Carina (the keel of the ship),
Puppis (the poop) and
Vela (the sails). Were it still considered a single constellation, it would be the largest of all, being larger than
Hydra.
When Argo Navis was split, its Bayer designations were also split. Carina has the Alpha and Beta, Vela has Gamma and Delta, Carina has Epsilon, Puppis has Zeta, and so on.
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