Canopus

/keuh noh"peuhs/, n.

1. Astron. a first-magnitude star in the constellation Carina: the second brightest star in the heavens.

2. an ancient seacoast city in Lower Egypt, 15 mi. (24 km) E of Alexandria.

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▪ ancient city, Egypt

Greek  Kanopos 

      ancient Egyptian (Egypt, ancient) city on the western coast of the Nile River delta, in Al-Iskandariyyah muḥāfaẓah (governorate). The Canopic branch of the Nile is entirely silted up, but on the shore about 2 miles (3 km) from Abū Qīr there are extensive remains, including the temple of the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis. Canopus was a centre of the ointment industry and a pleasure resort for the people of Alexandria.

  Osiris was worshipped at Canopus under the form of a human-headed vessel. The name canopic jars (canopic jar) was therefore mistakenly applied by archaeologists to the jars with human and animal heads in which the viscera were placed by the ancient Egyptians after mummification.

 

▪ star

also called  Alpha Carinae 

      second brightest star (after Sirius) in the night sky, with a visual magnitude of −0.73. Lying in the southern constellation Carina, about 300 light-years from the Earth, Canopus is sometimes used as a guide in the attitude control of spacecraft because of its angular distance from the Sun and the contrast of its brightness among nearby celestial objects. The Syrian Stoic philosopher Poseidonius (c. 135–50 BC) used sightings of Canopus near the horizon in his estimation of the size of the Earth.

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