Canis Minor Constellation

  7.30 pm western sky, Venus not to be traced any more but we got to see Procyon again and the major stars were visible. Saptarishi mandal also went in hiding. Hoping for a nicer sky today. Procyon is part of the constellation Canis Minor.

  Canis Minor is a small constellation in the northern sky. Its name means “the smaller dog” or “lesser dog” in Latin.

  The constellation represents one of the dogs following Orion, the hunter in Greek mythology. The other dog is represented by the larger neighbouring constellation Canis Major.

   Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris) is the brightest star in Canis Minor and the seventh brightest star in the sky as we have seen earlier. 

   Procyon is part of the Winter Triangle asterism, along with Sirius in Canis Major and Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion. It is also one of the vertices of the Winter Hexagon, along with the stars Capella in Auriga, Aldebaran in Taurus, Castor and Pollux in Gemini, Rigel in Orion and Sirius in Canis Major.

   Little A is able to connect the dots with familiar Latin names and comes out with her own guess of meanings too. This was the most easiest of all constellations isn't it?...It is called as "magic wand" constellation by us.