Canis Minor - The Little Dog

Learn about the constellation Canis Minor - The Little Dog, location, facts, mythology, meteor showers and deep space objects.

Canis Minor is one of the 88 modern constellations and was also in Ptolemy's list of 48 constellations.

Location: Northern Winter 8h RA 5° Dec

Its name is Latin for "lesser dog", in contrast to Canis Major, the "greater dog"; both figures are commonly represented as following the constellation of Orion the hunter.

Canis Minor is a small constellation mainly consisting of two stars. Procyon is the eighth brightest star in the night sky. Procyon means 'anterior dog' in Greek, as it rises before the Dog Star, Sirius, of Canis Major.

Canis Minor Mythology

Canis Minor was considered to be the smaller of the two hunting dogs of Orion. However, the ancient Greeks did not recognize it as a distinct constellation, and thus originally only considered Orion to have had one dog.

Canis Minor Deep Space Objects

The Milky Way passes through much of Canis Minor, yet it has few deep-sky objects.

NGC 2459 is a group of five thirteenth- and fourteenth-magnitude stars that appear to lie close together in the sky but are not related. A similar situation has occurred with NGC 2394.

NGC 2508 is a lenticular galaxy of thirteenth-magnitude, estimated at 205 million light-years (63 million parsecs) distance with a diameter of 80 thousand light-years (25 thousand parsecs).