Canis Major

Canis major is also known as Great Dog and Sirius, the brightest star in night sky is the most prominent star in this constellation.

If you closely look at the right corner of this photograph, you will see 3 stars that form a straight line. There are no prizes for guessing what they represent - yes it is Orion's Belt. In my previous post, I had shared a way to locate Sirius using this Orion's belt.

The brightest star at center of this image is Sirius. Sirius has a companion in the form of white dwarf star which makes it a binary star system.

To the naked eyes from a city with a lot of light pollution, only 5 stars are properly visible. I could capture them all using IPhone 7 camera. Given a darker place & a proper camera, I might get a chance to capture a photo showing relatively dimmer stars in this system.With a better photograph, I will come up with a labelled version of Canis Major.

Names of stars in Canis Major starting from Sirius in clock wise direction are as below.
Quadrilateral shape
1. Sirius
2. Mirzam
3. Adhara
4. Wezen

Farthest from Sirius, one which forms triangle with Adhara & Wezen
5. Aludra