Canopus is the seventeenth star in the Nautical Almanac. The second brightest star in our night sky, Canopus is the brightest star in the constellation Carina (The Keel). In ancient times, Carina The Keel, Vela The Sails, and Puppis The Deck made up the single huge constellation of Argo.
Greeks and Romans in their homelands could not see Canopus, but it was obvious to anyone crossing the Mediterranean southward.
According to some sources, Canopus was named for the Navigator of Argo the mythical ship of Jason and the Argonauts, but other sources trace Canopus back to the ancient Egyptian name "Kenabus" meaning "golden star." Canopus lay close to the horizon in Egypt, and was often caught up in the light of the dawn. It is also the name of an ancient Egyptian city, but it is likely the city was named for the star, not vice-versa. Still others cognate it with Janub, "South" in Arabic. Canopus was a particularly important star to the seafaring Phoenicians who called it Kinah, and to the Polynesians, who called it the "Festival Star."
Canopus is still an important navigational star, despite GPS. In ancient days it was considered the southern Pole Star (due to precession, in about 12,000 years it will be directly over the South Pole). It is one of the standard stars by which spacecraft orient themselves in flight nowadays.
Canopus is a brilliant white star. It lies 310 light years from Earth and is a Magnitude 0 star, eleven thousand times more luminous than our Sun. Canopus is larger than our Sun and if placed at the center of our Solar System, Mercury would just brush its surface. It has eight times the mass of the Sun. It burns at about 12,000 degrees F. and is approximately 10 million years old with a life expectancy of 1-2 million more years (as opposed to the Sun's 4.5 billion remaining years).
Canopus is popular in science fiction. It has been referenced many times in Star Trek, but is more famous as the home star of the planet Arrakis in the Dune novels.
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