Pyxis

Origin

The stars of Pyxis were known in antiquity, those days forming the mast of the Ship, Argo Navis, that was not depicted with sails. After the extension of Argo by Dutch sailors in the 1590s, the body of the ship was considered larger, further south, and a sail was introduced, leaving the stars of Pyxis without any function. The French astronomer Nicholas Lacaillein the eighteenth century considered them as a separate constellation named The Mariner’s Compass (Pyxis).

Lacaille sought to fill gaps in the southern sky's constellation chart, and Pyxis was one of the 14 new constellations he delineated. It is named after the compass used by mariners for navigation, symbolizing the importance of accurate navigation in exploration and discovery during the Age of Enlightenment. While not steeped in ancient mythology like many other constellations, Pyxis remains a tribute to the practical and scientific pursuits of the Enlightenment era.

Bright Stars

Pyxis is a relatively faint and inconspicuous constellation, and it doesn't contain any particularly bright stars. The constellation's stars are generally dim and not well known. The brightest stars in Pyxis are typically around the 4th or 5th magnitude, which makes them challenging to spot without a telescope or in areas with significant light pollution

Photo of the constellation Pyxis produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer. The annotations are from a standardized set of 88 western IAU constellations and stick figures from Sky & Telescope. Please find here a non-annotated version of the image.

Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani