Canis Minor

Canis Minor is a Zodiacal constellation otherwise known as the Lesser Dog. It is one of the 48 Greek constellations originally described by the 2nd century astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (Wikipedia). Canis Minor remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union (Wikipedia).

Canis Minor (abbrev. = CMi; genitive = Canis Minoris) covers 183 square degrees or 0.44% of the celestial sphere making it the 71st largest constellation. It contains 47 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 6.5, the brightest star being Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris). See Canis Minor for a photo this constellation from Bifrost Observatory.

For more information see the entries for Canis Minor at Wikipedia and U. Wisconsin. For a chart of Canis Minor, see CMi (IAU).






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