Carina - The Keel
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Carina represents the Keel,
part of the now dismantled constellation Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts.
On the right is Bayer's 1603 illustration of Argo Navis, taken from the first of
the great celestial star atlases, Uranometria.
Carina contains the second brightest star in the sky, Canopus. This is a yellow-white supergiant about 300
light years away shining at magnitude -0.7. Carina contains a famous variable star, eta Carinae. It has shown very
erratic changes in brightness, in 1843 it flared up to magnitude -1, but has now settled to around the sixth or seventh magnitude.
It is thought to be an unstable supergiant, that throws off shells of gas at irregular intervals. It is expected to become a supernova
within the next 10,000 years. NGC 3372 is a showpiece nebula in Carina. It is known as the eta Carinae Nebula, and is visible to the naked eye.
It is bisected by a dark v shaped area of dust known as the Keyhole because of its shape.