Canis Major is said to be Orion’s hunting dog, getting ready to help him battle the great bull. It is also thought of as chasing Lepus the rabbit who is in front of him. These are two of the myths told about Canis Major.
| Coordinates | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Star | RA | Decl | m | Class | M | Distance |
| Furud | 6:20:18.8 | −30° 3′ 48" | 3.11 | B5 | +3.02 | 103.09 pc |
| Murzim | 6:22:42 | −17° 57′ 21" | 2 | B1II-III | -3.95 | 153.14 pc |
| Sirius | 6:22:8.92 | −16° 42′ 58" | -1 | B3-B5 | -1.4 | 2.64 pc |
| Adara | 6:58:37.5 | −28° 58′ 20" | 2 | B1 | +2 and +9 | 132.10 pc |
| Muliphen | 7:3:45.5 | −15° 37′ 60" | 2 | A0 | +3.75 | 123.30 pc |
| Wezen | 7:8:23.5 | −26° 23′ 36" | 2 | F | -6.87 | 549.45 pc |
| Aludra | 7:24:5.7 | −29° 18′ 11" | 2 | B5 | -7.51 | 980.39 pc |
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. While it is coming directly towards us, Sirius creates an axis of rotation with Earth relative to the stellar background. Because of this, of all the stars in the sky, only the annual heliacal rising of Sirius exactly matches the length of our solar year, 365.25 days. The Ancient Egyptians were somehow aware of this unique relationship between our system and Sirius and marked the heliacal rising of Sirius as the first day of their calendar year.This star can be located at a right ascension of 6h 22m 8.92s and a declination of -16°42' 58. Sirius belongs to the spectral class B3-B5 and has an absolute magnitude of -3.95. Sirius is distanced at 8 1/2 light years away from Earth.
The Dwarf Galaxy is considered an irregular galaxy it is currently the closest galaxy to the Milky Way. Astronomers believe that the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is in the process of being pulled apart by the gravitational field of the more massive Milky Way galaxy. The main body of the galaxy is extremely degraded. The Dwarf Galaxy is said to contains around 1 billion stars. It can be found at a right ascension of 7h 12m 35s and a declination -27°40'00. This irregular dwarf galaxy can be found 25,ooo Ly from Earth.
Wezen is the second brighteset star in the Canis Major Constellation. The name Wezen comes from an Arabic name which means weight. Wezen has a great mass and size which is where the name has come from. Wezen is an unusuial yellow F-type supergiant. Wezen has the distance of about 1,800 light-years away. It can be found at a right ascension of 7h 8m 23.5s and a declination of -26° 23' 36". It has an apparent magnitude of 2 and an absolute magnitude of -6.87. Wezen Indi belongs to the spectral class F.
Adara is the 19th brightest star in the sky. It is a pale orange and violet color. Adara can be located at a right ascension of 6h 58m 37.5s and a declination of -28°58' 20. Sirius belongs to the spectral class B1 and has an absolute magnitude of +2 and +9. Adara is distanced at 430 light years from Earth.
Contained information on the hisory of constellations. It also had information on the stars of constellations and where the consetllaions were located. Information in the text was limited but still contained some valuable information.
Jim Kaler's stars website gave a lot of useful information on particular stars in a constellation. This webpage was useful in finding statistics and interesting facts on the stars of Indus. Maps and lists of other sources are also listed on the webpage to further one's studies. It was a good source to develope the features of the constellation and was easy to navigate.