Constellations · Constellation · Canis Minoris · CMi
Constellation
Canis Minor
Orion’s smaller dog: two stars, and one of them, Procyon, is among the nearest bright stars — “before the dog”, since it rises just ahead of Sirius.
- Genitive
- Canis Minoris
- Area
- 183 square degrees · 71st of 88
- Brightest star
- Procyon · magnitude 0.40
- Naked-eye stars
- 47 brighter than magnitude 6.5
- Highest at midnight
- early January
Look for
Procyon makes the Winter Triangle with Sirius and Betelgeuse.
Science
Like Sirius, Procyon has a white-dwarf companion, first seen in 1896 — a tiny, dense cinder of a dead star.