COSMOS / CONSTELLATIONS / CMI
Canis Minor (Little Dog)
The Little Dog. IAU abbreviation CMi. One of the 48 classical constellations listed by Ptolemy in the Almagest in the 2nd century AD.
STAR CHART
KEY FACTS
- IAU abbreviation
- CMi
- Latin name / genitive
- Canis Minor / Canis Minoris
- Position
- Right ascension ≈ 7 h 37 m; declination +0° to +17°
- Visibility from Türkiye
- Visible in full from anywhere in Türkiye. When it crosses the meridian its centre stands about 59° above the horizon from Ankara.
- Best time to observe
- Best placed at 21:00 Türkiye time around 13 March.
- Number of stars
- 48 stars brighter than magnitude 6.5 in the catalogue; 6 brighter than 5 and 2 brighter than 4.
INTERACTIVE LAB
Where is Canis Minor 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 13 March). Change the city to compare the view from elsewhere in Türkiye and around the world.
MYTH, HISTORY AND OBSERVING
Orion’s smaller dog. It consists of little more than two stars: Gomeisa and Procyon, 11 light-years away, which forms the Winter Triangle with Sirius and Betelgeuse. Procyon has a faint white-dwarf companion.
BRIGHTEST STARS
| Star | Magnitude | Distance (light-years) | Spectral type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Procyon | 0.40 | 11 | F5IV-V |
| Gomeisa | 2.89 | 162 | B8Vvar |
| γ CMi | 4.33 | 318 | K3III |
| HIP 39311 | 4.39 | 254 | K2III |
| 6 CMi | 4.55 | 572 | K2III |
| ε CMi | 4.99 | 1,042 | G8III |
| ζ CMi | 5.12 | 624 | B8II |
| η CMi | 5.22 | 318 | F0III |
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.