Constellation Chart

The (Mariner’s) Compass

Pyxis was introduced by Abbé de la Caille, and associated with the giant 'superconstellation' of Argo Navis. In naming the constellation, though, de la Caille encountered a problem: there is no Latin word for 'compass', because the Romans did not have them. To solve this, he chose the word pyxis, which literally means 'little box'. The full name of the constellation, not now used, was Pyxis Nautica, meaning 'The Mariner's Box' or 'The Mariner's Compass'.

Though it lies on the plane of the Milky Way, there are few bright stars in this constellation. The brightest is Alpha Pyxidis, with a magnitude of just +3.7. It lies more than 800 light years away, but it is a highly luminous body and hence visible from Earth. The other stars of the constellation are a little closer, but all are fainter than magnitude +4.0.

Galaxy In Pyxis

NGC2613

Regular multiple spiral arm pattern is similar to M31, but more regular. Finc dust lanes on inside of the many arms. The largest HII regions will resolve at the 2 arcsec level and the two or three largest among the many smaller knots should be useful for the distance scale problem.

NGC 2627

NGC 2627 is centered, its 15 stars loosely scattered across an 11' diameter area. 8.1 magnitude SAO 199825 is visible near the eastern edge of the field. Some 26' to the west-southwest, 8.1 magnitude HD 73256 guards the western field boundary. Ten arc minutes to the north-northwest, 9.0 magnitude HD 73201 marks the northwest edge of the field. This trio frames the cluster. A string of five 12th magnitude stars runs northeast from HD 73256 for a distance of 9', terminating near the brightest star in NGC 2627. That star is 10.7 magnitude Tycho 6582:601:1, which is visible adjacent to a 12th magnitude star. The pair stand a few arc minutes northwest of the center of the field. To find NGC 2627, center on 4.9 magnitude Zeta Pyxidis and slew 40' to the southwest.

NGC 2818

NGC 2818 is an open star cluster without special Brillianz. Normally star clusters consist such as NGC 2818 of a combination of smaller and large stars. The small stars live longer than the large ones, there latter their hydrogen supply, because of the large gravitation pressure, faster burn. In NGC 2818 the large stars possibly already left the stage as Supernoven and the small stars to seem to likewise disintegrate. The planetary fog NGC 2818å, which is to be seen in the picture, supplies the reason for this acceptance. Both acceptance collected put the conclusion close that the star cluster is already very old. One assumes an age of approximately a billion years old.

Planetary Destinations In Pyxis

HD 73256 (G8/K0)

Parent Star: HD 73256 (G8/K0) in the constellation of Pyxis is located at a distance of 119.04 Light Years from our Solar system Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 08 36 23.0155 and Declination: -30 02 15.45. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 8.08. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.46 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 1.43 AU. Orbiting around HD 73256 is planet HD 73256 b the planet is believed to be a dark hot jupiter and its exitence has been confirmed. The Planets Appearance is dark sodium haze. The planet is positioned outside of the habitability zone at mean orbital distance of 0.037 AU. The planet Orbits around the star every 2.54858 ± 0.00016 Days and was discovered by UDRY S., MAYOR M., CLAUSEN J., FREYHAMMER L., HELT B., LOVIS C., NAEF D., OLSEN E., PEPE F., QUELOZ D. & SANTOS N, in 2003.