Canis Minor

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Canis minor
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Abbreviation	CMi
Genitive	Canis Minoris
Symbology	the Smaller Dog
Right ascension	8 h
Declination	+5°
Area	183 sq. deg. Ranked 71st
Number of stars (Bayer-Flamsteed)	14
Number of bright stars (magnitude < 3)	2
Number of nearby stars (Distance < 100 ly)	1
Brightest star	Procyon (α CMi) (App. magnitude 0.38)
Nearest Star	Procyon (α CMi) (Distance: 11.4 ly)
Meteor showers	Canis-Minorids
Bordering constellations	Monoceros Gemini Cancer Hydra
Visible at latitudes between +85° and −75° Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of March

Canis Minor (IPA: /ˈkeɪnɪs ˈmʌɪnə/, Latin: 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.

1 Notable features
2 Notable deep sky objects
3 Mythology
4 Notable and named stars
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] 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.

[edit] Notable deep sky objects

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

[edit] 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.

[edit] Notable and named stars

BD	F	Names and other designations	Mag.	Ly away	Comments
α	10	Procyon, Alpha Canis Minoris, Antecanis, Al Shira, Elgoaisa	0.40	11.4	binary star nearby < الغميصاء al-ghumaisa’, The bleary-eyed (woman), in contrast to "العبور" The teary-eyed (woman), which is Sirius. <الشعرى الشامية al-shi'ra al-shamiyah, The "Shami" (Syrian) sign. The other Shira is Sirius. Ancient arabs used "Al-sham" (Syria) to signify the north, thus the meaning is "The northern sign". < προκύον The fore-dog (before the Dog Star)
β	3	Beta Canis Minoris, Gomeisa	2.89	170	Gamma Cassiopeiae variable < مرزم الغميصاء mirzam al-ghumaisa', The "wrapper" of al-ghumaisa. Later shortened to "Gomeisa". "Mirzam" may also mean the cord or the girdle.
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