page_title: Vela (constellation)
section_title: Characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Vela (constellation) / Characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: The constellation of Vela, the sails, as it can be seen by the naked eye
context_page_description: Vela is a constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for the sails of a ship, and it was originally part of a larger constellation, the ship Argo Navis, which was later divided into three parts, the others being Carina and Puppis. With an apparent magnitude of 1.8, its brightest star is the hot blue multiple star Gamma Velorum, one component of which is the brightest Wolf-Rayet star in the sky. Delta and Kappa Velorum, together with Epsilon and Iota Carinae, form the asterism known as the False Cross. 1.95-magnitude Delta is actually a triple or quintuple star system.
context_section_description: Vela is bordered by Antlia and Pyxis to the north, Puppis to the northwest, Carina to the south and southwest, and Centaurus to the east. Covering 500 square degrees, it ranks 32nd of the 88 modern constellations in size. The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is "Vel".
  The official constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 14 segments. In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between  08ʰ 13.3ᵐ and  11ʰ 05.5ᵐ, while the declination coordinates are between −37.16° and −57.17°.
caption: The constellation of Vela, the sails, as it can be seen by the naked eye
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