CANIS MINOR

The Little Dog

Canis Major - Celestial Atlas by Alexander Jamieson - 1822

Just across the Milky Way from Canis Major, leaping at Orion's shoulder like a young pup, is Canis Minor, the Little Dog. It's a small constellation, with not a lot to offer besides the two stars Procyon, and Gomeisa.

Procyon is the alpha star, and the name means before the dog, because it rises in the east just before Sirius, the great Dog Star. Procyon itself is no slouch, with a magnitude of 0.35, it is the eighth brightest star in the sky. It is also the fifth closest of all the visible stars, residing at a distance of only 11.3 light years. It is an F5 main sequence star twice the size of our Sun, and six times brighter, with a surface temperature of 7,000 ° C.

Procyon, like its big brother Sirius, has a small white dwarf star as a companion, making it a binary system.

The beta star in Canis Minor is named Gomeisa, which means the one with the sad eyes. The name harkens back to a pre-canis-minor legend of a weeping sister, left behind, on the wrong side of the Milky Way. Although the star looks smaller and fainter than Procyon, it is actually much bigger and brighter, but it is 15 times farther away, out at a distance of 170 light years.

Canis Minor is traditionally thought of as the smaller of Orion's two faithful hunting dogs.

Alphabetical Links to the Constellations

ANDROMEDA AQUARIUS AQUILA ARIES AURIGA BOOTES CAMELOPARDALIS CANCER CANES VENATICI CANIS MAJOR CANIS MINOR CAPRICORNUS CARINA CASSIOPEIA CENTAURUS CEPHEUS CETUS COLUMBA COMA BERENICES CORONA AUSTRALIS CORONA BOREALIS CORVUS CRATER CRUX CYGNUS DELPHINUS DORADO DRACO EQUULEUS ERIDANUS FORNAX GEMINI HERCULES HYDRA LACERTA LEO LEO MINOR LEPUS LIBRA LUPUS LYNX LYRA MONOCEROS OPHIUCHUS ORION PEGASUS PERSEUS PISCES PISCIS AUSTRALIS PUPPIS SAGITTA SAGITTARIUS SCORPIUS SCULPTOR SCUTUM SERPENS SEXTANS TAURUS TUCANA URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR VELA VIRGO VULPECULA