Featured Constellations |
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Canis Major is the Great Dog in constellation
lore, one of two hunting dogs employed by the
mighty Orion as he hunts Taurus the bull.
Forgive me for noticing, but these dogs are
both letting Orion take the lead, and seem to
be following him towards the enraged bull with
some degree of caution. I guess these are
SMART dogs!
I have a little trouble drawing
the stars of Canis Major as a dog, and I've
seen the lines arranged with the head appearing
at the north side or the south side of the
pattern, so there must be a little ambiguity.
Now, bear in mind, these are just random star
arrangements, and the stars are at different
distances anyway, so you'd only see a "dog"
from the vicinity of the sun (and Earth).
Don't fuss over what is a head star or a tail
star - Abraham Lincoln had a story I like that
may illustrate this. He said, what if you
called a dog's tail a leg - how many legs would
a dog then have? The answer: still four - just
because you call it a leg doesn't mean it IS
one. So draw these stars as you please.
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One other note: I think there is a better pattern here, and forgive me for being a native Californian, but I see these stars as a surfer - Sirius as the head, with one arm stretched out ahead (Murzim), and another angled behind. The triangle of stars to the south are the wave rider's legs, hanging ten on a board that extends west to the star Furud. If you like this interpretation, let me add that Surfer Major is riding west in the "wave" of the milky way, appropriately ending his evenings wiping out into the western horizon. Pretty tubular, dude.
Each of the bright stars is worth mention, and a few are listed specially in our deep sky objects section which follows. In brief, Sirius is by far the brightest star of any constellation; Murzim, marking the western "arm" of the surfer, is a lovely blue star with an erratic personality; and in the trio of bright stars below Sirius, Adhara just missed the list of "first magnitude" stars, and in any other constellation would be considered impressive. The brightest stars of Canis Major are all hot bluish stars, outshining our own sun by many times - but note that a few red and yellow sparks can be found among them, most notably Omicron 1 which is in the waistband of the surfer's swim trunks, and Sigma, just northeast of Adhara in the surfer's front leg.
To find out about celestial objects you can find in our featured constellation, go to Deep Sky Objects.
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