Canis Major
Origin
Canis Major is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. In the second century, it was included in Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for "greater dog" in contrast to Canis Minor, the "lesser dog"; both figures are commonly represented as following the constellation of Orion the hunter through the sky.
Bright Stars
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky, with a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46. Sirius is a binary star consisting of a main-sequence star of spectral type A0 or A1, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, termed Sirius B.
Photo of the constellation Canis Major 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 Major
Pronunciation
CMa
Abbreviation
KANE-es MAY-jer
Notable Objects
EZ Canis Majoris is a Wolf–Rayet star of spectral type WN4 that varies between magnitudes 6.71 and 6.95 over a period of 3.766 days; the cause of its variability is unknown but it is thought to be related to its stellar wind and rotation.
Messier 41, NGC 2287 (NGC 2287), an open cluster with a combined visual magnitude of 4.5, around 2300 light-years from Earth. It can be seen in the same binocular field as Sirius, making it very easy to find.
