The story behind the name: Hydrus, the water snake, was noted by Dutch navigators Pieter Dirszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman who charted the southern skies between 1595 and 1597 on a voyage to the East Indies. The constellation was introduced by Johann Bayer in his 1603 publication Uranometrica. Hydrus resembles a rearing snake, with its head erect and body twisted into a sinuous shape.

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