Canopus
The second brightest star in the night sky, a white giant that spacecraft have long used to keep their bearings.
Tonight from
Rise, highest point and set are worked out on your device for the place above.
What it is
- Brightness
- Magnitude −0.62, the 2nd brightest star in the night sky
- Distance
- 309 light years
- Kind of star
- Yellow-white supergiant, spectral type F0 Ib
- Light it gives out
- About 14,000 times the Sun’s, in visible light
- Constellation
- Carina, where it is α Carinae
- Catalogue number
- HIP 30438
Figures from HYG database 4.1 (Hipparcos, Yale Bright Star and Gliese catalogues), CC BY-SA 4.0. All sources
Near it in the sky
- Large Magellanic CloudA galaxy in Dorado, about a hand span away.
- AdharaA blue-white bright giant in Canis Major, about a hand span away.
- M 41An open cluster in Canis Major, about two hand spans away.
- Southern PleiadesAn open cluster in Carina, about two hand spans away.
- Carina NebulaA nebula in Carina, about two hand spans away.