As one travels southward from the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere into the tropics our familiar circumpolar constellations sink lower and lower in the northern heavens and strange and unfamiliar star-groups rise gradually above the southern horizon. If we make our southward journey in the winter months the first of the southern constellations to come fully into view is the small star-group just south of Lepus known as Columba (The Dove), whose brightest star Phact is of the second magnitude. A line drawn from Procyon to Sirius and extended as far again brings us to this star and a line from Betelgeuze to Sirius extended an equal distance brings us to Zeta Argus which is equal to Phact in brightness. The two lines intersecting at Sirius make the "Egyptian X" as it is called.
Magnificent, blue-white Canopus, the most brilliant star in the heavens next to Sirius, a veritable diamond sparkling low in the southern sky, now commands our unqualified admiration. Canopus lies about 35° south of Sirius and is invisible north of the 37th parallel of latitude. At nine o'clock in the evening of February 6th it can be seen just above the southern horizon in that latitude and is then a conspicuous object in Georgia, Florida and the Gulf States.
"The star of Egypt whose proud light
Never hath beamed on those who rest
In the White Islands of the West."
writes Moore of Canopus in "Lalla Rookh."
Along the Nile Canopus was an object of worship as the god of waters. At the time of their erection, 6400 B.C., a number of temples in Upper Egypt were oriented so as to show Canopus at sunrise at the autumnal equinox, and other temples erected many centuries later were oriented in a similar manner. In China, as late as 100 B.C., and in India also Canopus was an object of worship.
The astronomer tells us that Canopus is immeasurably distant from the earth. It has been estimated to be forty thousand times more luminous than our sun.
Canopus is located in the constellation of Argo Navis which is the largest and most conspicuous constellation in the heavens. In addition to Canopus it contains a number of second- and third-magnitude stars and is subdivided for convenience into Puppis, The Prow; Carina, The Keel; and Vela, The Sails. Huge as it is, Argo Navis represents only half of a ship for the stern is lacking. According to the legend this ship was built by Argos, aided by Pallas Athene, for Jason, the leader of the expedition of the fifty Argonauts who sailed from Greece to Colchis in search of the golden fleece. Pallas Athene placed in the bow of the ship a piece of timber from the speaking oak of Dodona to guide the crew and warn them of dangers and after the voyage the ship was supposed to have been placed in the heavens.
Southern Constellations—1. In February
In Argo Navis is one of the finest telescopic objects in the heavens, the Keyhole Nebula, as it is usually called, from a peculiar-shaped dark patch in its brightest part. On the border of this nebula is the deep-red Wonder Star of the southern hemisphere, Eta Argus, which varies suddenly and unexpectedly in brightness between the seventh and first magnitudes. In 1843 it burst forth with a splendor rivaling Sirius and maintained this brilliancy for nearly ten years and then slowly waned in brilliancy until it disappeared to the unaided eye in 1886. The surrounding nebula also seems to share in its peculiar fluctuations of brightness. Eta Argus is now a star of the seventh magnitude and since it is still varying fitfully in brightness it is believed that the history of its light-changes is not complete.