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[[Image:Position Alpha Cmi.png|thumb|right|250px|Position and location of Procyon.]]

[[Image:Position Alpha Cmi.png|thumb|right|250px|Position and location of Procyon.]]

'''Procyon''', also known as '''Alpha Canis Minoris''' or the '''Little Dog Star''', is the brighter of the two stars that make up the constellation [[Canis Minor]].  Although appearing as a single star to the unaided eye, Procyon is actually a binary system made up of the primary star Procyon A and it's white dwarf companion, Procyon B.  The primary star has an apparent magnitude of 0.34, allowing for it to be easily seen in the night sky.  This is due more to it's relative closeness then anything else, as the star is only 11.41 light years away.

'''Procyon''', also known as '''Alpha Canis Minoris''' or the '''Little Dog Star''', is the brighter of the two stars that make up the constellation [[Canis Minor]].  Although appearing as a single star to the unaided eye, Procyon is actually a binary system made up of the primary star Procyon A and its white dwarf companion, Procyon B.  The primary star has an apparent magnitude of 0.34, allowing for it to be easily seen in the night sky.  This is due more to its relative closeness then anything else, as the star is only 11.41 light years away.

Procyon is also part of the [[Winter Triangle]] along with [[Betelgeuse]] and [[Sirius]].

Procyon is also part of the [[Winter Triangle]] along with [[Betelgeuse]] and [[Sirius]].

Procyon A is the eighth brightest star in the night sky, and with an apparent magnitude of 0.34, can easily be seen in all but the most light polluted skies.  The star itself is a white-yellow, main sequence dwarf of spectral type F5 V-IV.  Procyon is some 1.5 times the mass of the Sun<ref>http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2000AJ....119.2428G&db_key=AST&high=3ab60d466721564</ref>, and some 1.4 to 2.3 times the diameter.  Procyon A is also 7.5 times as bright as our Sun<ref>http://simbad3.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/cdsbib4?2006AJ....131.1015G</ref>.

Procyon A is the eighth brightest star in the night sky, and with an apparent magnitude of 0.34, can easily be seen in all but the most light polluted skies.  The star itself is a white-yellow, main sequence dwarf of spectral type F5 V-IV.  Procyon is some 1.5 times the mass of the Sun<ref>http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2000AJ....119.2428G&db_key=AST&high=3ab60d466721564</ref>, and some 1.4 to 2.3 times the diameter.  Procyon A is also 7.5 times as bright as our Sun<ref>http://simbad3.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/cdsbib4?2006AJ....131.1015G</ref>.

The [[metallicity]] of Procyon A is around 1.4 times that of the Sun, based on its abundance of [[iron]].  It is theorized that Procyon A is metal-rich because it was enriched by Procyon B when the latter puffed out it's metals-rich outer layers before becoming a [[white dwarf]]<ref>http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2000PASP..112..827K&db_key=AST&high=38ef9e6de213472</ref>.

The [[metallicity]] of Procyon A is around 1.4 times that of the Sun, based on its abundance of [[iron]].  It is theorized that Procyon A is metal-rich because it was enriched by Procyon B when the latter puffed out its metals-rich outer layers before becoming a [[white dwarf]]<ref>http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2000PASP..112..827K&db_key=AST&high=38ef9e6de213472</ref>.

Procyon A is a relatively young star that is only some 1.7 billion years old<ref>http://kencroswell.com/AgeOfProcyon.html</ref>.  Because of the fact that Procyon is much hotter and larger then our Sun, it will exhaust its [[hydrogen]] fuel in the core within a few billion years and evolve into a [[red giant]] before losing it's outer layers and become a [[white dwarf]] much like its companion.

Procyon A is a relatively young star that is only some 1.7 billion years old<ref>http://kencroswell.com/AgeOfProcyon.html</ref>.  Because of the fact that Procyon is much hotter and larger then our Sun, it will exhaust its [[hydrogen]] fuel in the core within a few billion years and evolve into a [[red giant]] before losing its outer layers and become a [[white dwarf]] much like its companion.

===Procyon B===

===Procyon B===

Procyon B is a dim white dwarf of spectral class DQZ, A4.  However the close proximity to the much brighter Procyon A has made precise measurements about the star's spectrum difficult.  The star is estimated to be around 15,000 times fainter then it's primary.  Procyon B is also only 6/10,000th as luminous as our [[Sun]], and only 2 perfect its diameter.  Because it is a white dwarf, it still has 60 percent of our Sun's mass, having a density estimated to be over two tones per cubic inch<ref>http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2000AJ....119.2428G&db_key=AST&high=3ab60d466721564</ref>.

Procyon B is a dim white dwarf of spectral class DQZ, A4.  However the close proximity to the much brighter Procyon A has made precise measurements about the star's spectrum difficult.  The star is estimated to be around 15,000 times fainter then its primary.  Procyon B is also only 6/10,000th as luminous as our [[Sun]], and only 2 perfect its diameter.  Because it is a white dwarf, it still has 60 percent of our Sun's mass, having a density estimated to be over two tones per cubic inch<ref>http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2000AJ....119.2428G&db_key=AST&high=3ab60d466721564</ref>.

===Substellar Companions===

===Substellar Companions===