Pyxis

Pyxis star chart (IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine, Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg)

One of the 88 IAU constellations. The stars of Pyxis formed the mast of Ptolemy's Argo, but have been separated from The Ship when the Dutch enlarged this constellation image in the 1590. Lacaille formed a new constellation with them in the 1750s.

Etymology and History

Lacaille's text about Pyxis in his first publication (1752).

The Greek constellation of Argo was imagined only in the northern stars of today's The Ship (Pup, Car).

Lacaille gives no reason or explanation for the invention of this constellation. The position of a compass between the top of the poop deck and the sails of a ship does not really make sense, but the three stars that form a straight line and were originally considered the mast of the ancient Greek Argo, could easily interpreted as a needle like in a mariner's compass.

Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation

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  Argo in the Almagest (137 CE), the stars of Pyxis form the mast of the ship.

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  Pyxis in the first map by Lacaille (1756)

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  Pyxis in Bode (1782)

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  Pyxis in Fortin's Atlas Céleste, 3rd edition (1795).

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  Argo and Pyxis in Bode (1782)

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  Argo and Pyxis in Goldbach (1799)

References

• References (general)
• References (ancient Greco-Roman)
• References (medieval)