Canis Minor

Canis Minor (Latin for smaller dog) is one of the 88 modern constellations, and was also in Ptolemy's list of 48 constellations. It is said to represent one of the dogs following Orion the hunter.

Notable features

Canis Minor is a small constellation mainly consisting of the two stars, Procyon (α CMi / Alpha Canis Minoris, 0.38^m) and Gomeisa (β CMi / Beta Canis Minoris), 2.9^m). Procyon is the eighth brightest star in the night sky. Procyon means "anterior dog" in Greek, as it rises before the Dog Star, Sirius, of Canis Major.

Notable deep sky objects

Being such a small constellation, Canis Minor has no deep sky object brighter than 10 Mag.

Mythology

Canis Minor was considered to be the smaller of the two hunting dogs of Orion. However, the ancient Greeks did not recognise it as a distinct constellation, and thus originally only considered Orion to have had one dog. See also the constellations of Orion and Canis Major.

Notable and named stars

binary star
nearby
< προκύον The fore-dog (before the Dog Star)

< الغميساء al-ghumaisa’ The bleary-eyed (woman)
Gamma Cassiopeiae variable

BD	F	Names and other designations	Mag.	Ly away
α	10	Procyon, Alpha Canis Minoris, Antecanis, Al Shira, Elgoaisa	0.40	11.4
β	3	Beta Canis Minoris, Gomeisa	2.89	170
γ	4	Gamma Canis Minoris	4.33	398
G		G Canis Minoris	4.39	261
	6	6 Canis Minoris	4.55	560
ε	2	Epsilon Canis Minoris	4.99	990
ζ	13	Zeta Canis Minoris	5.12	420
η	5	Eta Canis Minoris	5.22	351
δ¹	7	Delta1 Canis Minoris	5.24	790
	11	11 Canis Minoris	5.25	312
	14	14 Canis Minoris	5.30	265
	1	1 Canis Minoris	5.37	317
δ²	8	Delta2 Canis Minoris	5.59	139
δ³	9	Delta3 Canis Minoris	5.83	680

Source: The Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Ed., The Hipparcos Catalogue, ESA SP-1200

External links

The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Canis Minor

Canis Minor constellation

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Canis Minor

Notable features

Notable deep sky objects

Mythology

Notable and named stars

See also

External links