Page:Field Book of Stars.djvu/126

 CANIS MAJOR (kā'-nis mā-jor)—THE GREATER DOG (Face South.)

—The three stars in Orion's girdle point southeast to Sirius, the dog star, in Canis Major, the most brilliant star in the heavens. It was connected in the minds of the Egyptians with the rising of the Nile, and is receding from the earth at the rate of twenty miles a second. Seventeen years are required for its light to reach us. There is a tiny star near Sirius.

The star (ν) is a triple. The cluster (41 M.) can be seen with binoculars, just below it.

Between (δ) and (ο¹) note a remarkable array of minute stars, also the very red star (22).

(δ) and (ζ) are doubles for binoculars.

Below (η) there is a fine group.

Betelgeuze, in Orion, Procyon, in Canis Minor, and Sirius form a nearly equilateral triangle. These stars with Naos, in the Ship, and Phaet, in the Dove, form a huge figure known as the Egyptian "X."

From earliest times Sirius has been known as the Dog of Orion. 104