The only dog constellations of the night sky, Canis Major — the big dog — and Canis Minor — the little dog — have been taking their nightly jaunts across the southern skies for many, many winters. Before this winter is over and we turn away from that part of space, get to know the hounds of the heavens. They're nice. They're bright. And they don't bite.

Like a lot of constellations, they're referred to by their traditional Latin names. canis is Latin for dog, so Canis Major and Minor are the big and

little dog

respectively. They're part of the entourage that travels with the legendary constellation Orion the Hunter.

According to Greek mythology, Canis Major and Minor are Orion's hunting dogs. When Orion was killed in a fight with a giant scorpion, his girlfriend, Diana, the goddess of the moon, placed Orion's body in the heavens as the constellation we see today. She also placed his pet rabbit Lepus and his hunting dogs Canis Major and Minor up in the sky with him.

The Big Dog, Canis Major, is up on his hind legs to Orion's lower left. The brightest star in the entire night sky, Sirius, is perched on thebig dog's nose.Just extend a line to the lower left from the three bright belt stars of Orion and you'll run right into Sirius. You should have absolutely no problem finding it. Sirius is so bright in the sky because it's so close, only 8 light-years, or nearly 50 trillionmiles from Earth. It's a star about two million miles in diameter, more than twice that of our sun.To find the rest of Canis Major, look for a star just to the right of Sirius. That's a star called Mirzam, the front paw of the big dog. Then go back to Sirius and look down to the left for a distinct triangle of stars that outline the dog's rear end, tail, and hind leg. The star at the hind foot is called Aludra, a monster size star more than 100 million miles in diameter and over 3,000 light years away. Just one light-year equals about 6 trillion miles. In fact, the light we see tonight from Aludra in Butler County skies left that star before the year 1000 B.C. If Aludra was as close as Sirius is to Earth, it would easily be the brightest thing in the nighttime sky, even brighter than the moon.Whenever you gaze upon a star, keep in the mind that the brightness of a star is determined by two factors, size and distance. Just because a star is dim doesn't necessarily mean it's puny. It could be a monster many light-years away.The little dog, Canis Minor, is a poor excuse for a constellation. All there is to the Little Dog is a bright star called Procyon and a dimmer star just above it. It'sa Chihuahua.Look for Canis Minor just to the left of Orion.One of the great treasures of the Pennsylvania winter sky is the "Winter Triangle." It's made up of the dog stars Sirius and Procyon, and the third staris Betelgeuse, the bright red star at Orion's armpit. It forms an absolute perfect triangle.Enjoy the celestial dog pound. www.lynchandthestars.com