Puppis, is the constellation which is towards west of Pyxis constellation. If you move your eyes towards east, you will see another constellation named Antlia. In the North and South of Pyxis, you will find Hydra and Vela constellations respectively. Pyxis is between celestial equator and South Pole, and so is fully part of Southern Hemisphere.
It covers up 221 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 65th largest constellation in the sky.
We can gaze at this compass shape of Pyxis constellation from October to June, as seen from India.
Constellation Pyxis
All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 48 stars of this constellations, as they are the one which are brighter than the lower limit of our naked eyes (i.e. 6.5 apparent magnitude) to see faintest stars. The brightest star of this constellation is Alpha Pyxidis.
Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars. Out of total 48 stars of different types, here is the list of 20 brightest stars as per their nature:
As per Hindu mythology, there are no such known stories for this constellation.
Deep Sky Objects…
NGC 2627 || Open Cluster
NGC 2613 || Spiral Galaxy
NGC 2818 || Planetary Nebula
All the stars that we see naked eyes, all belong to our own, Milky way galaxy (Akash Ganga Tara Vishv). Bright stars can be seen naked eye and faint one through telescope. But the curtain of sky that we see in 2D is actually a huge universe we are talking about, with 3 dimension. There are many nebulous objects visible in every constellations. They differ widely by distances and nature. Like Emission Nebula, Reflecting Nebula, Absorption Nebula, Star Birth Nebula, Supernova Remnants (SNR) and Open Starscluster which are within the disk of our own Milky Way galaxy. Globular cluster are also found, which are in the halo of our galaxy and some most distant objects like galaxies are also visible through telescope. Such objects are defined as “Deep Sky Objects”.
In this constellation there are 13 such different types of Deep Sky Objects observed. Below is the list of 13 brightest Deep Sky Objects:
east, you will see another constellation named Antlia. In the North and South of Pyxis, you will find Hydra and Vela constellations respectively. Pyxis is between celestial equator and South Pole, and so is fully part of Southern Hemisphere.
NGC 2627 || Open Cluster
NGC 2613 || Spiral Galaxy
NGC 2818 || Planetary Nebula