COSMOS / CONSTELLATIONS / CMA
Canis Major (Great Dog)
The Great Dog. IAU abbreviation CMa. One of the 48 classical constellations listed by Ptolemy in the Almagest in the 2nd century AD.
STAR CHART
KEY FACTS
- IAU abbreviation
- CMa
- Latin name / genitive
- Canis Major / Canis Majoris
- Position
- Right ascension ≈ 6 h 53 m; declination −33° to −11°
- Visibility from Türkiye
- Visible in full from anywhere in Türkiye. When it crosses the meridian its centre stands about 28° above the horizon from Ankara.
- Best time to observe
- Best placed at 21:00 Türkiye time around 2 March.
- Number of stars
- 149 stars brighter than magnitude 6.5 in the catalogue; 30 brighter than 5 and 11 brighter than 4.
INTERACTIVE LAB
Where is Canis Major tonight?
The lab opens for Ankara on today’s date. Drag the time slider through the night; the “Best night” button jumps to the date when the constellation is highest at 21:00 (around 2 March). Change the city to compare the view from elsewhere in Türkiye and around the world.
MYTH, HISTORY AND OBSERVING
Orion’s larger hunting dog. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is only 8.6 light-years away; in ancient Egypt its first appearance before dawn heralded the Nile flood. M41, a few degrees south of Sirius, is an open cluster that looks fine in binoculars.
BRIGHTEST STARS
| Star | Magnitude | Distance (light-years) | Spectral type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sirius | -1.44 | 9 | A0m |
| Adhara | 1.50 | 405 | B2II |
| Wezen | 1.83 | 1,607 | F8Ia |
| Mirzam | 1.98 | 493 | B1II/III |
| Aludra | 2.45 | 1,989 | B5Ia |
| Furud | 3.02 | 362 | B2.5V |
| ο² CMa | 3.02 | 2,764 | B3Ia |
| Nganurganity | 3.49 | 1,121 | K4III |
Magnitude: apparent brightness; the smaller the number, the brighter the star. Distances derive from parallax measurements and are uncertain for distant stars. Source: HYG v4.1 star catalogue (CC BY-SA 4.0).
SOURCES
Position, visibility and best observing time were computed approximately for this page from the catalogue stars (Ankara, 39.9° N). The 88 constellations were adopted by the IAU in 1922; their boundaries were drawn by Eugène Delporte in 1930.