Mike Lynch

In the case of the two celestial hounds of heaven, the constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor, you can blame Orion the Hunter for letting the dogs loose in our starry skies.

The constellation Orion is one of the best-known and most recognized characters in the night sky. He's certainly the king of the cold winter heavens, surrounded by a gang of bright stars and companion constellations.

According to Greek and Roman mythology, Orion was a nocturnal hermit hunter who was the son of Zeus, the king of the gods. Because of his father's genes, Orion had superhuman strength and abilities that gave him a considerable advantage over the beasts he hunted.

His only weapon was his mighty club, which he would use to take out the critters he skillfully stalked. Of course, every good hunter has his faithful hunting dogs, and Orion's best friends were his big dog, Canis Major, and his little dog, Canis Minor, which are Latin for big and little dog, respectively. They're also seen as constellations adjacent to the great hunter Orion.

Orion's big dog, Canis Major, is easy to find. From our view, it's just to the lower left of Orion in the south-southwestern early evening Butler sky, and as you can see, it resembles a dog standing on its hind legs begging for food scraps from his master.

Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, marks the dog's nose. Just use the three stars in a row that outline Orion's belt as a pointer to the lower left, and you'll run right into Sirius.

To the right of Sirius is Mirzam, a dimmer but distinct star that marks the hound's elevated paw. To Sirius's lower left, you can't help but notice the triangular pattern of stars that outline Canis Major's hind end, hind leg and tail.

As Canis Major journeys across the sky from east to west in response to the Earth's rotation, the big doggy appears to maintain its begging stance.

You can find noteworthy stars at either end of Canis Major. Sirius, at the nose, is not only the brightest star of the constellation but is also the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius is a Greek name that translates to English as "The Scorcher."

It's so brilliant partly because it's larger than our sun, but mainly because it's so much closer to us than most other stars. Sirius is only eight light-years away, while most other stars we see at a glance are an average of 100 light-years away. By the way, just one light-year equals almost six trillion miles!

At the other end of Canis Major is Aludra, the star at the end of the big dog's tail. It's certainly nowhere near the brilliance of Sirius, but it's one heck of a star!

Astronomers estimate that Aludra is almost 50 million miles in diameter. Our sun isn't even a million miles across. The reason it has a reasonably humble appearance in our sky is that it's about 2,000 light-years away! The light that you see from Aludra tonight left that gargantuan star right around the time of the birth of Christ.

As majestic as the constellation Canis Major is, Orion's little hunting dog Canis Minor is kind of a joke by comparison, at least in my opinion. It only has two stars you can see well with the naked eye, Procyon and Gomeisa.

It's easy to find. Just look for the next brightest star you can see in the sky to the upper left of Sirius. That's Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor. Gomeisa is a fainter star to the upper right of Procyon. Maybe it's a wiener dog! How those two stars outline a dog is anybody's guess.

The constellation Orion and his hunting dogs all contribute to one of the coolest configurations in the sky, the "Winter Triangle." In your mind's eye, draw a line from the bright star Betelgeuse at the armpit of Orion the Hunter to Sirius in Canis Major and then up to Procyon in Canis Minor. You'll easily see that those three bright stars make up a perfect equilateral triangle from our vantage here on Earth.

Enjoy the hounds of heaven!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of "Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations," published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.