Canis Minor Constellation: The Ultimate Guide

Canis Minor is one of the 48 constellations first described by the Greek-Egyptian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy; this constellation appears in the Almagest, the complete stellar catalog of antiquity.

In ancient Greece, Canis Minor is related to the story of the Teumessian Fox. This giant fox was impossible to capture.

But the best-known story is that shepherds poisoned Icario. His daughter Erigone and his dog Maera found his body, and both took their own lives due to the pain of their loss.

Zeus captured his images in the sky in honor of his death, with Erigone as the constellation Virgo, Icarius as the constellation Boötes, and Maera as the constellation Canis Minor.

During the fifteenth century, navigators confused the constellation Canis Minor with Canis Major, which resemble each other in shape and name, but not in location.

In 1930 the boundaries of the constellations were established by the Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporteen, delimiting the constellation Canis Minor to a 14-sided polygon.

Since then, its boundaries have remained unchanged.

Since its assignment as a northern constellation Canis Minor has not suffered significant falls on its borders and is an essential region for studying near-Earth stars.

Canis Minor resides in the second quadrant of the Northern Hemisphere (NQ2), at latitudes between 75° S and 90° N. We can see the constellation every night in any country of the world.

Canis Minor is visible in the USA, Europe, Russia, China, or Japan in the northern hemisphere.

Canis minor is visible in all the southern hemisphere countries and a small Antarctica region.

Canis Minor is a constellation close to the north pole, so it is visible all year round to the northern hemisphere countries.

For the southern hemisphere countries, a part of the constellation is no longer visible in autumn. The best month to see the constellation of Canis Minor is in March.

To locate the constellation Canis Minor, you must look to the north of the celestial vault.

Canis Minor is a tiny constellation, but it has two very bright stars, Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris) and Gomeisa (Beta Canis Minoris); you can use these two stars to find it.

To navigate the sky, you can draw a straight line from the star Betelgeuse of the constellation Orion to the star Regulus of the constellation Leo; you will find Canis Minor right in the middle of the road between the two.

Canis Minor's related constellations are Monoceros, Gemini, Cancer, and Hydra.

In turn, Canis Minor is part of the family of the constellations of Orion; these include Canis Major, Lepus, Monoceros, and Orion.

Canis Minor officially has 47 stars, of which only two have proper names; these are Procyon and Gomeisa.

Canis Minor's brightest star is Procyon. It has an apparent magnitude of +0.50 and is located 11.41 light-years from Earth, one of the closest stars to our solar system.

Beta Canis Minoris is the second brightest star in the constellation Canis Minor; it is a main-sequence B8 Ve type star, with a brightness that reaches the magnitude of 2.84 and is 160 light-years from Earth.

Canis Minor is a small constellation; because of that, it has very few deep sky bodies, most of which are still in the study phase and are very dim, and only the most powerful telescopes can study them.

The only two deep-sky bodies in Canis Minor that the International Astronomical Union officially recognizes are:

• NGC 2508: It is a lenticular galaxy of the thirteenth magnitude. The distance calculations indicate that it is located 205 million light-years from our universe and has a diameter of 80 thousand light-years.
• NGC 2402: These are a pair of galaxies that seem to interact with each other. One may be an elliptical galaxy of the fourteenth magnitude, and the other is a spiral of the fifteenth magnitude. Both are approximately 245 million light-years apart.

The constellation Canis Minor has associated a meteor shower called "11 Canis Minorids," although popularly known as "Beta Canis Minorids."

The Beta Canis Minorids meteor shower occurs between December 4-15, and the peak of maximum observation occurs between December 10 and 11.

• Canis Minor is often confused with Canis Major's constellation because they resemble a dog.
• In the story, Canis Minor and Canis Major are the hunting dogs of Orion and therefore are close to him in the sky.

• Canis Minor is a constellation of the northern celestial hemisphere; its name comes from the Latin "Canis Minoris," which means Minor Dog. Its history comes from ancient Greece, associated with the dog Maera of Icario of Athens.
• Although it is in the Northern Hemisphere, Canis Minor is visible from all world countries; it is also visible from Antarctica.
• The best month to see the constellation Canis Minor is in March.
• Canis Minor's brightest star is Procyon, with a magnitude of +0.50.
• The best way to locate the constellation Canis Minor is to draw a straight line from the star Betelgeuse of the constellation Orion to the star Regulus of the constellation Leo; you will find Canis Minor right in the middle of the road between the two.
• Canis Minor has no noticeable deep-sky bodies.
• The strongest meteor shower in Canis Minor is the Beta Canis Minorids.

1. https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/canis-minor-constellation/
2. http://www.seasky.org/constellations/constellation-canis-minor.html
3. https://www.universetoday.com/19795/canis-minor/
4. https://nineplanets.org/canis-minor-constellation/