Vela

Vela is a Southern Hemisphere constellation otherwise known as the Sails. It was originally part of the Greek constellation Argo Navis but was divided into three separate constellations (Carina, Puppis, and Vela) by Abbe Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (Wikipedia) in the 1750s and published posthumously in Coelum Australe Stelliferum in 1763.Vela remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union (Wikipedia).

Vela (abbrev. = Vel; genitive = Velorum) covers 500 square degrees or 1.21% of the celestial sphere making it the 32nd largest constellation. It contains 214 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 6.5, the brightest star being Regor.

For more information see the entries for Vela at Wikipedia and U. Wisconsin. For a chart of Vela, see Vel (IAU).


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