The constellation Pyxis is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky, which is actually an abbreviation from its full name of Pyxis Nautica. In Latin, Pyxis Nautica translates to mariner’s compass. Pyxis was introduced by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations.

The plane of the Milky Way passes through Pyxis, as the constellation covers 220.8 square degrees on the night sky. This translates to 0.535% of the sky, Pyxis ranks 65th largest of the 88 modern constellations by area. Its position in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere means that the whole constellation is visible to observers south of 52°N.

Pyxis is located close to the stars that formed the old constellation Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts. Parts of Argo Navis were the Carina, the Puppis, and the Vela. These eventually became their own constellations. In the 19th century, John Herschel suggested renaming Pyxis to Malus but the suggestion was not followed.

	Applicable Information
Visibility In Pacific Northwest	October to March
Best Times To View	January
Right Ascension	9h
Declination	−30°
Area	221 square degrees
Main Stars	3
Brightest Object	α Pyx
Meteor showers	0
Messier objects	0
Neighboring Constellations	Hydra, Puppis, Vela, Antlia

History

In ancient Chinese astronomy, Alpha, Beta and Gamma Pyxidis formed part of Tianmiao, a celestial temple honoring the ancestors of the emperor, along with stars from neighboring Antlia.

The French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille first described the constellation as la Boussole in French, which means the marine compass, in 1752. This was during a period in which he had observed and catalogued almost 10,000 southern stars during a two-year stay at the Cape of Good Hope. Pyxis was 1 of 14 new constellations that were charted in regions of the Southern Celestial Hemisphere not visible from Europe. Lacaille Latinized the name to Pixis Nautica on his 1763 chart. The Ancient Greeks identified the four main stars of Pyxis as the mast of the mythological Jason’s ship, Argo Navis.

There were some attempts by other astronomers to change the name of the constellation, but these new names did not gain favor.

Stars

Lacaille gave Bayer designations to ten stars now named Alpha to Lambda Pyxidis, skipping the Greek letters iota and kappa. Although a nautical element, the constellation was not an integral part of the old Argo Navis and hence did not share in the original Bayer designations of that constellation, which were split between Carina, Vela and Puppis. Pyxis is a faint constellation, its three brightest stars—Alpha, Beta and Gamma Pyxidis—forming a rough line. Overall, there are 41 stars within the constellation’s borders with apparent magnitudes brighter than or equal to 6.5.

Planetary systems

Pyxis is home to three stars with confirmed planetary systems, all of which were discovered by Doppler spectroscopy.

Deep sky objects

Pyxis lies in the plane of the Milky Way, although part of the eastern edge is dark, with material obscuring our galaxy arm there. NGC 2818 is a planetary nebula that lies within a dim open cluster of magnitude 8.2. NGC 2818A is an open cluster that lies on line of sight with it. K 1-2 is a planetary nebula whose central star is a spectroscopic binary composed of two stars in close orbit with jets emanating from the system. NGC 2627 is an open cluster of magnitude 8.4 that is visible in binoculars.

The Pyxis globular cluster is a globular cluster situated around 130,000 light-years distant from Earth and around 133,000 light-years distant from the centre of the Milky Way. It is located in the galactic halo and lies on the same plane as the Large Magellanic Cloud and the possibility has been raised that it might be an escaped object from that galaxy.

NGC 2613 is a spiral galaxy of magnitude 10.5 which appears spindle-shaped as it is almost edge-on to observers on Earth.

Make sure to check out other articles on the site, including a brief introduction to constellations, other constellation articles, and more!