CANOPUS

, a name given by some of the old astronomers to a star under the 2d bend of Eridanus. These writers say that the river in the heavens is not the Eridanus, but the Nile, and that this star commemorates an island made by that river, which was called by the same name.

Canopus is also the name of a bright star of the first magnitude in the rudder of the ship Argo, one of the southern constellations. Its situation, as given by several authors, at different times, is as follows: