南船座是南天星座之一，原是最大的星座，但于十八世纪被拆分为四个单独的星座，分别是船帆座、船底座、船尾座和罗盘座。亮度仅次于天狼星、全天第二的亮星老人星是南船座最亮的主星。

Argo Navis (the Ship Argo), or simply Argo, was a large constellation in the southern sky that has since been divided into three constellations. It represented the Argo, the ship used by Jason and the Argonauts in Greek mythology. The genitive was "Argus Navis", abbreviated "Arg". Flamsteed and other early modern astronomers called the constellation just Navis (the Ship), genitive "Navis", abbreviated "Nav".