Canis Minor - Telescope Astrophotography of the Constellation of the Small dog
Canis Minor is known as the "Lesser Dog", and is one of the smallest constellations in the sky. It is one of Orion's hunting dogs, being a smaller version of the Canis Major constellation.
I decided to capture this constellation with my telescope and not with a widefield camera lens. Because of the telescope's focal length (400mm), I had to do a 2-panel mosaic to fit both stars in one picture. Some stitching leftovers are still visible slightly, but it overall looks great as you can see here. I spent a total of 14 hours on this image, from the dark skies of Astronomy Acres in New Mexico.
14 hours on Canis Minor with a RASA8
GEAR USED:
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC
Telescope: Celestron RASA 8
Mount: 10Micron GM2000 HPS
Accessories: Celestron Focuser / PrimaLuceLab Eagle 5S
Processing: Pixinsight, with R-C Astro plugins. Final touches in Skylum Luminar Neo
ACQUISITION DETAILS:
Total Exposure Time: 14 hours
Exposure Time per frame: 10 minutes
Calibrated with 15 Darks and 15 Bias
How to find the Canis Minor Constellation?
The best time to spot Canis Minor is during winter and early spring in the Northern Hemisphere. It reaches its highest point in the sky around February at about 9 PM, but you can find it from late December through April.
To spot it, first look for the three stars of Orion’s Belt. Then, look East and follow an imaginary line towards the brightest star in the sky (Sirius). Continue on that line and you'll see another very bright star, Procyon. Procyon is one of the two stars making up Canis Minor (The other one being Gomeisa).
The Myth
We'll ignore the many variant stories and stick to the Greek Mythology. Canis Minor represents one of Orion's two dogs, helping the hunter by chasing after a hare (represented by the constellation Lepus). The other dog is the larger Canis Major. Canis Minor runs closely by Orion's side.
Canis Minor - Drawings seen in "Urania's Mirror"
One interpretation suggests that Canis Minor represents Maera, the loyal dog of the vineyard keeper Icarius. According to legend, Icarius was favored by the god Dionysus and taught the art of winemaking. When he shared his wine with travelers, they mistook their drunkenness for poisoning and killed him. Maera, heartbroken by the loss of his master, ran to inform Icarius’ daughter before leaping into the sea in despair. In honor of his loyalty, Zeus placed Maera in the sky as Canis Minor.
If you are interested in learning about the 88 constellations, make sure to take a look at our book! It has awesome reviews on Amazon and was written to make learning the constellations as easy as possible.
What deep sky objects are located in Canis Minor?
There are no impressive objects in the small constellation of Canis Minor.
The only object worth taking note about is NGC 2485, a spiral galaxy with a diameter of 110,000 light-years. It is 233 million light-years away from Earth, and was discovered by Albert Marth on March 25th, 1864.
It has a magnitude of 13.08 and an apparent size of just 1.6' x 1.6'.
Final Thoughts
Despite the stitching issues, I am happy with this image and it is nice to have captured an entire constellation using a telescope instead of a camera lens! Yes, it only has 2 stars, but still!
Have you imaged the Canis Minor constellation? Add your image in the comments section below so everyone can see!
Clear Skies,
Galactic Hunter
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