Generalities: it is a southern constellation, characterized by the presence of the second brightest star of the sky, Canopus and containing other bright stars. Its transit at midnight takes place in January.

Origins and mythology: this constellation derives from the dismemberment of a big constellation that characterized the southern sky: the Ship Argon. It represents a part of this ship, the hull exactly. The Ship Argon was used by the Argonauts, led by Jason, to go to steal the gold fleece of the sacred ram, guarded in a grove.

Stars: the main attraction of the Hull is Canopo, the second star of the whole sky. Its magnitude is -0.72,it is of white-yellow color and is over  1,000 light-years far. Other two stars are under  magnitude 2. They are the beta, named Miaplacidus, of white color, which is 85 light-years far and the epsilon, named Avior and of orange color. The Hull shows other three stars under  magnitude 3 and other 10 of magnitude 4.
 
 

Star	Proper name	Magnitude	Spectrum	Colour	Distance (light-years)	Notes
Alpha	Canopus	-0.72	F0	white-yellow	1170	2nd star in the sky
Beta	Miaplacidus	1.78	A0	white	85
Epsilon	Avior	1.86	K0	orange	202
Iota	Tureis	2.25	F0	white-yellow	815
Theta		2.76	B0	blue	750
Nu		2.97	A7	white	323
Rho		3.32 (var.)	B3	white-blue	313
q		3.40	K5	orange-red	910
a		3.44	B2	blue	620
Chi		3.47	B2	blue	590
u		3.78	K0	orange	85
R		3.8 (var)	M5	red	815	magn. variable between 3.8 and 10
c		3.84	B8	white	303
x		3.91	G0	yellow	4550

Other objects: it includes several open heaps and some interesting nebulas .

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