Because the constellation Carina is visible only from latitudes well south of Europe, it was not well observed by European astronomers until the 1500s. Originally part of an amorphous constellation called Argo, after the ship Jason used to find the Golden Fleece, it was carved into a separate constellation, Carina (ΓÇ£keel of a boatΓÇ¥ in Latin), by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 1750s.
Eta CarinaeΓÇÖs roller coaster ride of brightening and dimming has been observed by astronomers for over 300 years. Although the star is now invisible to the human eye, for a period in the nineteenth century it was the brightest star in Carinae and the second brightest star in the entire sky. One of its earliest observers was Sir Edmund Halley
