Avior

Its story

Avior is a luminous orange giant anchored in Carina, the keel of the ancient Argo. At 605 light-years, its warm amber light reaches us from a century when European navigators were still mapping the wind cycles of the Pacific. The name «Avior» belongs to no classical lore: it was coined by Britain's Royal Air Force in the 1930s for its astronomical navigation tables, so that pilots could memorise the bright stars of the southern sky.