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88 Constellations

Canis Minor



Origin

The modern name is Latin “The Lesser Dog” in contrast to Canis Major, the Greater Dog. However, in antiquity, this constellation was named “The one [asterism] before the Dog” because it rises a bit earlier in the northern hemisphere. The Greek term for “the one before the dog”, “pro kýon”, nowadays is used as a name for the brightest star of the constellation.


Bright Stars

Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris) has a magnitude of 0.34, and Gomeisa (Beta Canis Minoris) a magnitude of 2.9.

Photo of the constellation Canis Minor produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer. The annotations are from a standardized set of 88 western IAU constellations and stick figures from Sky & Telescope. Please find here a non-annotated version of the image.

Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani

Latin name


English name

Canis Minor

Pronunciation

Cane-is-MY-nor


Abbreviation

CMi

Notable Objects

NGC 2459 is a small open cluster. NGC 2394 is another open cluster in Canis Minor.

NGC 2508 is a lenticular galaxy of 13th magnitude, estimated to lie at a distance of 205 million light-years.