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Here is a star that northern stargazers rarely see. It is Canopus, and it is the second-brightest star in the entire sky.
You will not see this star from the northern U.S. or similar latitudes. However, northern skywatchers who travel south in winter – or people in latitudes like those in the southern U.S. – enjoy watching this star.
You can always find Canopus by first locating Sirius, the sky’s brightest star. Just face southward any evening around now. You can’t miss Sirius because it is so bright. Sirius makes a wide arc across the southern sky at this time of year. Canopus makes a smaller arc as seen from latitudes like those in the U.S., and, to us, Canopus appears below Sirius in the southern sky.
Sirius: Dog Star and brightest star
Sirius is well known for being part of the constellation Canis Major the Greater Dog. Canopus is in the constellation Carina. This southern constellation once was part of Argo Navis, the great Ship that sailed the southern skies – until astronomers officially named the constellations in the 1930s, at which time they divided Argo into three separate constellations. Carina is Latin for the Keel, that large beam along the underside of a ship’s hull, from bow to stern that gives it its stability.
If we were in the southern hemisphere now, our perspective on Sirius and Canopus would be very different. From Australia and New Zealand now, Sirius and Canopus both ride high in the sky. Southern hemisphere stargazers see them as twin beacons dominating the night.
Canopus: Second-brightest star
Written by Deborah Byrd
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA/JPL
U.S. Naval Observator Astronomical Information center
The York County Astronomical Society
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