How to see it
Procyon is the 8th brightest star in the sky, and the 6th brightest of those that are easily visible from the most populated regions of the northern hemisphere.
Procyon is easy to find on winter and spring evenings, in a large pattern made of three bright stars, known as the Winter Triangle.
Look for Procyon in the evening in the winter and spring months. By March of every year, Procyon is at or near the meridian (highest point in the sky) at early evening. By June, Procyon sets not long after dark.
Procyon is the brightest star in Canis Minor the Small Dog. This constellation is small, with only one other noteworthy star, named Gomeisa. Sometimes, Canis Minor is called the Hot Dog. Sometimes Procyon is called the Lesser Dog Star or Little Dog Star. Our chart shows Procyon as a member of the Winter Triangle asterism. In other words, these stars are not a recognized constellation – just a group of noticeable stars that happen to form a triangle pattern on the sky’s dome.
Fainter than blue-white Sirius to its south, white Procyon is marginally brighter than orange-red Betelgeuse to the west. The best time to view Procyon is at evening in late winter through spring, when the Winter Triangle (Sirius, Procyon, Betelgeuse) is highest in the sky. At magnitude 0.4, Procyon is almost the same brightness as nearby Betelgeuse in Orion, with average magnitude 0.45. (Remember, in the magnitude system, larger numbers are fainter.)
History and myth
Procyon is the alpha star of the constellation Canis Minor the Small Dog. In mythology, Canis Minor is the smaller of two of Orion the Hunter’s companion hunting dogs. The constellation Canis Major depicts the Great Dog, highlighted by Sirius, the sky’s brightest star (after the sun).
The name Procyon is from Greek and means “before the dog,” a reference to the rising of this star shortly before Sirius, the larger Dog Star in the constellation Canis Major.
An aside: “procyon” is also the genus designation of raccoons. Apparently the “before the dog” appellation indicated that biologists once considered raccoons as the precursors of dogs in the evolutionary sequence – an idea no longer in favor.
Likewise, Procyon no longer rises before Sirius – before the Dog Star. Thousands of years ago, Procyon did rise first. In fact, in 3000 BC, Procyon preceded Sirius by about 51 minutes at the location of today’s Cairo. Procyon’s rising time was particularly important in ancient Egypt, because the helical rising – or rising just before the sun – of Sirius heralded the annual flooding of the Nile River. Thus the rising of Procyon just before Sirius gave even more advanced warning. An observer in Cairo today, however, would find that Sirius actually rises a couple of minutes before Procyon! This contradictory fact is due to a kind of long-term wobble in Earth’s motion, called precession.
Science
The star Procyon is nearing the end stages of its lifetime, evolving from a normal mature star to the inflated giant stages of old age.
Read more about Procyon from Daniel Perley at Berkeley.
Normal stars spend the large majority of their lifetimes converting hydrogen into helium. As the available hydrogen runs out, a star grows larger and its surface becomes cooler. Eventually Procyon will become a red giant star, much larger and brighter than the sun, but that is still some millions of years in the future.
Currently Procyon is designated as an F5IV-V star, where the F5 essentially gives the color or temperature of the star’s surface, and the IV-V means that it is in a transitional phase between the Main Sequence (V) and subdwarf (IV) periods.
Only 11.4 light-years away, Procyon is one of our nearest stellar neighbors. It is about 1.4 times as massive as the sun, and has roughly twice its diameter. Slightly more than 7 times brighter than the sun, Procyon’s hotter surface (about 11,300 degrees F (6550K) compared to about 10,000 degrees F for the sun) radiates more of the higher energy but shorter wavelengths of light. As such, it is nearly 8 times more energetic (luminous) than the sun.
Procyon is a double star with a faint white dwarf companion that is not visible except in telescopes. The white dwarf, Procyon B, is farther along in its evolution than Procyon, and in fact has reached the end of the line. It no longer produces stable hydrogen fusion and is considered a “dead” star. The reasonable assumption is that these two stars formed at the same time, so the fact that Procyon B has already become a stellar corpse indicates that it originally must have been slightly more massive than Procyon. More massive stars tend to burn their fuel hotter and faster, causing them to burn out sooner.
The position of Procyon is RA 07h 39m 18.1/17.7s, dec +05° 13′ 29/20″.
Absolutely fantastic information! Procyon rose first before Sirius about 3000BC. due to the precession wobble effect. which i gather happen about every 26,000 years. do we know how much hydrogen is left to fuel Procyon? can we know how long it will take to become like a Red Dwarf(supernova) and if we can predict this, what effect would this have on our universe I wonder?!
Procyon is still a “main sequence” star, meaning that it is a normal star, somewhat like our Sun. However, unlike our Sun, which is in the prime of life, astronomers believe that Procyon is nearing old age and a distinct “change of life.” In a sense, stars go through life periods similar to humans — with some very important differences. The main difference is the time scale, which is both always much longer than that of a human, and also much more variable. A medium-mass star like our Sun can live about 10 billion (that’s “billion” with a “b”) years, whereas very massive stars (you can call them “heavy”) may live only a million years; but very low-mass (light) stars may live a hundred billion (“b”) years or more. Procyon is a little bit more massive (heavier) and hotter than our Sun, but its total lifetime likely would be 7- 10 billion years.
In a human, childhood might be 20 percent of a person’s life, old age another 20 percent, and maturity (adulthood) might be 60 percent of a human’s life. In most stars, however, adulthood is about 90-95 percent of the total lifetime, with childhood and old age taking maybe 2 to 5 percent of the total lifetime each. Procyon is nearing the end of its adulthood, but that still means that it has 10s to 100s of millions of years left. We just do not know enough yet to say for sure.
We do not know how much hydrogen Procyon has left to fuel its stable hydrogen fusion (which is what defines normal “starhood”). It could be 10 percent, 5 percent or even just 1 percent. However, even with just one percent of the ncessary hydrogen left, it could last another few million years. We just don’t know for sure.
Hello, on Christmas 2007 my wife presented me with a certificate giving me ownership of Procyon, (or as she calls me for I have husky blue eyes), she dubbed Procyon “Little Husky”. My question is, just what does this mean that I own Procyon? The catalouge nr. is HR-2943(Online-Register-Key (mag.0.38(# 1+2) RA(2000)(07 39 18.1)(DECL(2000)(+05 13 30 (d4049df. So that is it. Please let me hear from you.Sincerely,Antony Morris.
Antony,
Many years ago my wife gave me a similar certificate (for my birthday, I think) for a star in Orion. What fun! But that is all it is, fun. It is not in any way official or even meaningful to anyone other than you and your wife. The companies that “sell” stars go to great lengths to make you think that they are official and recognized by astronomers. They usually have disclaimers hidden in their materials, but as far as I am concerned it is a scam and these people should be stopped. Sometimes, however, there are more legitimate groups who make it clear that they are not actually “selling” the stars, and that the money is used for a good purpose. For example, Gates Planetarium here in Denver once sold certificates of ownership to the stars projected on their dome, but made it very clear that it was just for the star projected in the planetarium and not on the real sky. It was legitimate and above board. The money collected was used for educational projects. But again, most if not all of the groups “selling” stars today are not in any way official, although their names often sound high falutin and important. And what happens to the money is anyone’s guess. When you get something like this it is a very nice gesture and a nice thought from whomever gives it to you, but the advertising is deceptive and I cannot condone the practice.
this web site really helped me,but it was hard 2 read.for 3 yrs. i thought that it waz 12.8 lightyrs away . i really need to pat attention in class.ha ha .but i am so glad i am not in school this week! p.s i am in 5th grade
love ya
samantha
Hi, Samantha. Thanks for your note. I’m sure you will be paying better attention when you go back to school next week {;^), but I am surprised that you even heard the distance to Procyon in class! Good for your teacher!
is that true
she is totaly right lol mom
[...] the southern sky at dusk. Orion, the Hunter, is almost due south. His two dogs, represented by Sirius and Procyon, are to his left. Above Orion is Taurus, the Bull with Aldebaran as its eye. Gemini, the Twins, [...]