If you know much about the Canis Major than it will be not so much difficult for you to understand this Constellation because this constellation is the reaming part of the Canis Major constellation. It is also a Greek constellation, whose rank is 71st among the modern 88 constellations. Its Greek name is Prokyon that is taken form the Greek language. Now we can say that we are representing the smaller of the two dogs of Orion who is constituted of the bright star Procyon that is meaning ‘before the dog” or “after the dog.”
General details of this Constellation:
It is small in size as compared to the other, and it contains Prokyon itself, and it is the eighth brightest star present in the space, 11.5 light years away from the earth. The person who has discovered this constellation was none another then the Ptolemy, and according to him, Prokyon is the body of the dog and the stars in the dog’s neck are now known as beta Canis Minor.
Space and Size:
This constellation is a small constellation that is located in the southern sky means the “smaller dog” or “lesser dog” and this constellation represents one of the dogs who is following the Orion. The remaining dog is already described in the section of Canis Major.
Location in the sky:
This is the 71st largest constellation in the space system which is nearly occupying an area of 183 square degrees; its location lies in the second quadrant of NQ2 in the northern hemisphere with the neighbors like Cancer, Gemini, and hydra. This constellation belongs to the Orion family of constellations along with the other constellations such as Canis Major, Lepus, and Monoceros.
Myth related to this Constellation:
As given above this constellation is all base on the Dog mythology in which there are two dogs one of them is Canis major dog who is termed as the Bigger dog, and the remaining one is the Canis Minor who is considered as the lesser or smaller dog. Hyginus also wrote about the myths of this constellation, and he wrote that lacrius murdered to the island was because of sickness and famine. Which were featured as searing Dog Star, Sirius?
The deep sky objects:
This kind of a constellation contains so many deep sky objects but they all are very difficult to observe, the brightest in them is NGC 2485 with a magnitude of 12.4.The galaxy is located 3.5 degrees northeast to the Procyon.
The family of stars:
This constellation also has starred as their family, and they all are very much different in the concept of magnitude and distant form the earth. Following is the star-list of the Canis Minor Constellation:
Procyon:
It is the biggest star of this constellation having bright contrast and suitable magnitude of range 0.34 which is always good for brightness.
Gomeisa:
It is the second brightest star available in this constellation having magnitude lie between 2.84 to 2.92 as they will produce high brightness.