Constellation of the Month: Canis Minor (the Lesser Dog)

 

Canis Minor is a small February/March evening constellation, just north of the faint constellation Monoceros (and further north of Canis Major (last month's featured constellation).  It lies just south of the Zodiac, at the junction of Gemini and Cancer.  Although small...only two stars are brighter than 4th magnitude...it is still more prominent than many other constellations, including the aforementioned Cancer and Monoceros.  It features Procyon, the seventh-brightest star in the night sky and one of the nearest, only 11.4 light-years distant.  The other readily visible star is Gomeisa at third-magnitude brightness but much more distant, around 160 light-years.  The easiest way to see Canis Minor from latitudes north of the Equator is to either go straight up from Sirius, the brightest star of the night sky, or fix on Orion and go due East (left) from the star Betelgeuse in the north part of that constellation.  In the evening sky, when spring rolls around the stars above are much dimmer...a look toward the west will reveal all those bright stars and constellations of the winter, now following the sun to the setting horizon.   But I always have a soft place in my heart for the springtime, for it was during this season back in 1964 when my father introduced me, at age seven, to the constellations, pointing them out to me in the sky...what a great memory!  Next month I'll pick another constellation to discuss...