Canis Major is also known as what?
Canis Major Canis Major Canis Major is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. In the second century, it was included in Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for "greater dog" in contrast to Canis Minor, the "lesser dog"; both figures are commonly represented as following the constellation of Orion the hunter through the sky. The Milky Way passes through Canis Major and several open clusters lie within its borders, most notably M41. Canis Major contains Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, known as the "dog star". It is bright because
Canis Major as luminous as the sun and, at 2500 light-years distant, 300 times further away than Sirius. Epsilon, Omicron, Delta, and Eta Canis Majoris were called "Al Adzari" "the virgins" in medieval Arabic tradition. Marking the dog's right thigh on Bayer's atlas is Epsilon Canis Majoris, also known as Adhara. At magnitude 1.5, it is the second-brightest star in Canis Major and the 23rd-brightest star in the sky. It is a blue-white supergiant of spectral type B2Iab, around 404 light-years from Earth. This star is one of the brightest known extreme ultraviolet sources in the sky. It is a binary star;