Puppis, is the constellation which is towards west of Vela constellation. If you move your eyes towards east, you will see another constellation named Centaurus. In the North of Vela, you will find Antlia and Pyxis and in South, carina constellation. Vela is nearly halfway between celestial equator and South Pole, and so is fully part of Southern Hemisphere.
It covers up 500 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 32nd largest constellation in the sky.
We can gaze at this shape of Vela constellation from November to June, as seen from India.
Constellation Vela
All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 193 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 gamma Velorum.
Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars. Out of total 193 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.
Vela Mythology
Deep Sky Objects…
Luhman 16A || Binary Brown dwarf System
Gum 19 || Emission Nebula
Gum Nebula or Gum 12 || Emission 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 44 such different types of Deep Sky Objects observed. Below is the list of 20 brightest Deep Sky Objects:
HH-47 || Herbig Haro Object
NGC 2547 || Open Cluster
Pencil Nebula or NGC 2736 || Part of Vela SNR
Galaxy
Open Cluster
Globular Cluster
Nebula
Supernova Remnant
Naked eye visibility
–
Omicron Velae Cluster
–
–
–
–
4
–
–
–
Visible through Telescope
3
10
1
Eight Burst Nebula
–
3
15
1
1
–
Eight Burst Nebula or NGC 3132 || Planetary Nebula
NGC 3201 || Globular Cluster
RCW 36 || Emission Nebula with Open Clsuter
east, you will see another constellation named Centaurus. In the North of Vela, you will find Antlia and Pyxis and in South, carina constellation. Vela is nearly halfway between celestial equator and South Pole, and so is fully part of Southern Hemisphere.
Luhman 16A || Binary Brown dwarf System
Gum 19 || Emission Nebula
Gum Nebula or Gum 12 || Emission Nebula
HH-47 || Herbig Haro Object
NGC 2547 || Open Cluster
Pencil Nebula or NGC 2736 || Part of Vela SNR
Eight Burst Nebula or NGC 3132 || Planetary Nebula
NGC 3201 || Globular Cluster
RCW 36 || Emission Nebula with Open Clsuter