Since antiquity, the large and rich equatorial constellation of Hydra has been well known
to astronomers. In the seventeenth century, though, Johann Bayer decided that a single Water Snake was insufficient for a full sky,
and created a second, far less prominent, in this small region between the two Magellanic Clouds.
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The thin constellation shape of Hydrus defines a 'slice' of space 'beneath' the
main disc of the Milky Way.
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