Canopus resides in the constellation Carina, The Keel. Carina is one of three modern-day constellations that formed the ancient constellation of Argo Navis, the ship Jason and the Argonauts sailed in to search for the Golden Fleece. Two other constellations form the Sail (Vela) and Stern (Puppis).

In modern odysseys, spacecraft such as Voyager 2 used the light from Canopus to orient themselves in the sea of space.

Canopus is a true powerhouse. Its brilliance from our terrestrial vantage point is due more to its great luminosity than its proximity. Though 316 light-years away, No. 2 on our list is 14,800 times the intrinsic luminosity of the Sun. (Recall that the brightest star, Sirius, is just 8.5 light-years distant.)

With a magnitude of –0.72, Canopus is easy to find in the night sky, though it is only visible at latitudes south of 37 degrees north (roughly south of Pittsburg).

Canopus is a yellow-white F super giant -- a star with a temperature from 10,000 to 14,000 degrees Fahrenheit (6,000 to 8,000 Kelvin) -- that has ceased hydrogen fusion and is now in the process of converting its core helium into carbon. This process as led to its current size, 65 times that of the Sun. If we were to replace our Sun with Canopus, it would almost envelope Mercury.

Canopus will eventually become one of the largest white dwarfs in the galaxy and may just be massive enough to fuse its carbon, turning into a rare neon-oxygen white dwarf. These are rare because most white dwarfs have carbon-oxygen cores. But a massive star like Canopus can begin to burn its carbon into neon and oxygen as the star evolves into a small, dense and cooler object.

Canopus lost its place in the celestial hierarchy for a short time in the 1800s when the star Eta Carinae underwent a massive outburst, surpassing Canopus in brightness and briefly becoming the second brightest star in the sky. [Canopus Map]