Canis Minor

Canis Minor (Shooni)

Canis Minor, resembles the shape of a small dog, when stars in this constellation are imaginarily connected, as per Indian mythology!

Where should I see…

Monoceros, is the constellation which is towards west of Canis Minor constellation. If you move your eyes towards east, you will see another constellation named Cancer and Hydra. In the North and South of Canis Minor, you will find Gemini and Monoceros constellations respectively. Canis Minor is halfway between celestial equator and North Pole, and so is fully part of Northern Hemisphere.

It covers up 183 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 71st largest constellation in the sky.

When and What can I see…

We can gaze at this small dog shape of Canis Minor constellation from September to May, as seen from India.

All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 44 stars of this constellations, as they are the one which are brighter than the lower limit of our naked eyes (i.e. 6.5 apparent magnitude) to see faintest stars.. The brightest star of this constellation is Procyon.

Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars.

Out of total 44 stars of different types, here is the list of 20 brightest stars as per their nature:

Binary / Multiple Star system Variable Stars Binary / Multiple and Variable Stars Single stars
6 3 Procyon 8
Gomeisa
6 3 2 8
Mythology stories…

As per Hindi mythology, there are no such known stories for this constellation.

Deep Sky Objects…

NGC 2485 || Spiral Galaxy NGC 2485 || Spiral Galaxy

All the stars that we see naked eyes, all belong to our own, Milky way galaxy (Akash Ganga Tara Vishv). Bright stars can be seen naked eye and faint one through telescope. But the curtain of sky that we see in 2D is actually a huge universe we are talking about, with 3 dimension. There are many nebulous objects visible in every constellations, they differ widely by distances and nature. Many are different types of nebulae like Emission Nebula, Reflecting Nebula, Absorption Nebula, Star Birth Nebula, Supernova Remnants (SNR) and Open Stars cluster which are within the disk of our own Milky Way galaxy. Globular cluster are also found, which are in the halo of our galaxy and some most distant objects like galaxies are also visible through telescope. Such objects are defined as “Deep Sky Objects”. 

In this constellation there are 22 such different types of Deep Sky Objects observed. 

Below is the list of 20 brightest Deep Sky Objects:


 

Galaxy Open Cluster Globular Cluster Nebula Supernova Remnant
Naked eye visibility
Visible through Telescope 19 1
19 1