Editing Pyxis (section)

==History==
[[File:Hydra IAU.svg|left|thumb|300px|Pyxis is positioned just south of the star [[Alphard]] in the constellation [[Hydra (constellation)|Hydra]] midway between [[Virgo (constellation)|Virgo]] and [[Cancer (constellation)|Cancer]]. Although it is completely visible from latitudes south of [[53rd parallel north|53 degrees north]], its best evening-sky visibility is during February and March in the southern hemisphere.]]
In ancient [[Chinese astronomy]], Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Pyxidis formed part of ''Tianmiao'', a celestial temple honouring the ancestors of the emperor, along with stars from neighbouring [[Antlia]].<ref name=startales>{{cite web |last=Ridpath |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Ridpath |publisher=Self-published |date=1988 |title=Pyxis |work=Star Tales |url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/pyxis.html#chinese |access-date=8 October 2012}}</ref>

The French astronomer [[Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille]] first described the [[constellation]] in French as ''la Boussole'' (the Marine Compass) in 1752,<ref name=ridpathlac>{{cite web |url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/lacaille.html |title=Lacaille's Southern Planisphere of 1756 |work=Star Tales |author=Ridpath, Ian |publisher=Self-published |access-date=1 August 2015|author-link=Ian Ridpath }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Lacaille, Nicolas Louis |year=1756 |title=Relation abrégée du Voyage fait par ordre du Roi au cap de Bonne-espérance |journal=Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences |pages=519–92 [589] |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k35505/f787 |language=fr}}</ref> after he had observed and catalogued almost 10,000 southern stars during a two-year stay at the [[Cape of Good Hope]]. He devised fourteen new constellations in uncharted regions of the [[Southern Celestial Hemisphere]] not visible from Europe. All but one honoured instruments that symbolised the [[Age of Enlightenment]].{{efn|1=The exception is [[Mensa (constellation)|Mensa]], named for the [[Table Mountain]]. The other thirteen (alongside Pyxis) are [[Antlia]], [[Caelum]], [[Circinus]], [[Fornax]], [[Horologium (constellation)|Horologium]], [[Microscopium]], [[Norma (constellation)|Norma]], [[Octans]], [[Pictor]], [[Reticulum]], [[Sculptor (constellation)|Sculptor]], and [[Telescopium]].<ref name=wagman/>}} Lacaille Latinised the name to ''Pixis'' [sic] ''Nautica'' on his 1763 chart.<ref name=wagman>{{cite book |last=Wagman |first=Morton |date=2003 |title=Lost Stars: Lost, Missing and Troublesome Stars from the Catalogues of Johannes Bayer, Nicholas Louis de Lacaille, John Flamsteed, and Sundry Others |publisher=The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company |location=Blacksburg, Virginia |isbn=978-0-939923-78-6 |pages=6–7, 261–62}}</ref><!-- Cites previous three sentences --> The Ancient Greeks identified the four main stars of Pyxis as the mast of the mythological [[Jason]]'s ship, ''[[Argo Navis]]''.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ridpath, Ian |year=2006 |title=Eyewitness Companions: Astronomy |page=210 |publisher=DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) |location=London, England |isbn=978-0-7566-4845-9}}</ref>

German astronomer [[Johann Elert Bode|Johann Bode]] defined the constellation Lochium Funis, the Log and Line—a nautical device once used for measuring speed and distance travelled at sea—around Pyxis in his 1801 star atlas, but the depiction did not survive.<ref name=startales2>{{cite web |last=Ridpath |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Ridpath |publisher=Self-published |date=1988 |title=Lochium Funis |work=Star Tales |url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/lochiumfunis.html |access-date=6 July 2015}}</ref> In 1844 [[John Herschel]] attempted to resurrect the classical configuration of Argo Navis by renaming it Malus the Mast, a suggestion followed by [[Francis Baily]], but [[Benjamin Apthorp Gould|Benjamin Gould]] restored Lacaille's nomenclature.<ref name=wagman/><!-- cites previous three sentences--> For instance, [[Alpha Pyxidis]] is referenced as α Mali in an old catalog of the [[United States Naval Observatory]] (star 3766, page 97).<ref>{{cite book |author=Yarnall, M. |year=1889 |title=Catalogue of Stars observed at the United States Naval Observatory during the years 1845 to 1877, third edition |page=97 |publisher=Washington Government printing office |location=Washington, USA| url=https://archive.org/details/cataloguestarsus00unitrich/cataloguestarsus00unitrich/page/96/mode/2up}}</ref>