Constellations - Canis Major

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Canis Major is found south east of Orion. An easy way to locate the constellation is to locate the three stars that make up Orions Belt and follow the stars down in a south westerly direction until you come to the next bright star. This is Sirius in Canis Major, its the brightest star in the constellation..

South of Sirius, the open cluster M41 can be found. Like all open clusters, it contains a few hundred young stars and has no particular shape.

Together the stars are just bright enough to be seen with the naked eye on a clear night with no moon. With binoculars they appear as a faint smudge and in a telescope, the cluster is easily seen, covering about as much sky as the full moon does.

As the cluster appears low in the sky from northern latitudes light pollution reduces the splendor of this cluster but its still worth a look.

Sirius also has a companion star, known as Sirius B. Sirius B was the first 'white dwarf' to be discovered.

Telescopic Objects:
Object	Magnitude	Comments
M41	6.9	Open cluster

Main Stars
Name	Mag	Distance	Comments
Sirius	-1.4	8 L/Y	Has white dwarf companion Mag 8.5
Adhara	1.5	490 L/Y
Wezea	1.8	3,060 L/Y
Mirzam	1.9	720 L/Y
Aludra	2.4	2,500 L/Y

Multiple Stars
Name	Mag / Seperation	Comments
Sirius	-1.4 & 8.5 / variable	Binary system with an orbital period of 50 years. In the mid 1990's the apparent separation was at its minimum so a powerful telescope is required to split the pair.

Author: Alistair Thomson

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