Editing Canopus (section)

==Nomenclature==
The name ''Canopus'' is a Latinisation of the [[Ancient Greek]] name Κάνωβος/Kanôbos, recorded in Claudius Ptolemy's ''[[Almagest]]'' (c.150 AD). Eratosthenes used the same spelling.<ref name="ridpathCr"/> Hipparchos wrote it as Κάνωπος. [[John Flamsteed]] wrote Canobus,<ref>{{cite book|last=Flamsteed|first=John|title=Atlas coelestis|location=London, United Kingdom|date=1729|pages=Constellation Map of Southern Hemisphere|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53096741t/f108.item.zoom}}</ref> as did [[Edmond Halley]] in his 1679 ''Catalogus Stellarum Australium''.<ref name="Halley 1679">{{cite book|last=Halley|first=Edmond|title=Catalogus stellarum australium; sive, Supplementum catalogi Tychenici, exhibens longitudines et latitudines stellarum fixarum, quae, prope polum Antarcticum sitae, in horizonte Uraniburgico Tychoni inconspicuae fuere, accurato calculo ex distantiis supputatas, & ad annum 1677 completum correctas...Accedit appendicula de rebus quibusdam astronomicis|publisher=T. James|location=London|date=1679|pages=30|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015007000170;view=1up;seq=41;size=150}}</ref> The name has two possible derivations, both listed in [[Richard Hinckley Allen]]'s seminal ''[[Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning]]''.

* The brightest star in the obsolete constellation of [[Argo Navis]], which represented the ship used by [[Jason]] and the [[Argonauts]], was given the name of a ship's pilot from another Greek legend: [[Canopus (mythology)|Canopus]], pilot of [[Menelaus]]' ship on his quest to retrieve [[Helen of Troy]] after she was taken by [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]].<ref name="hinkley63">{{cite book|first=Richard Hinckley|last=Allen|author-link=Richard Hinckley Allen|date=1963|orig-year=1899|title=Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning|pages=[https://archive.org/details/starnamestheirlo00alle/page/67 67–72]|edition=Revised|publisher=Dover Publications|location=New York | isbn=((0-486-21079-0)) | url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/starnamestheirlo00alle/page/67}}</ref>
*  A ruined ancient Egyptian port named [[Canopus, Egypt|Canopus]] lies near the mouth of the [[Nile]], site of the [[Battle of the Nile]].  It is speculated that its name is derived from the Egyptian [[Coptic language|Coptic]] ''Kahi Nub'' ("Golden Earth"), which refers to how Canopus would have appeared near the horizon in [[ancient Egypt]], reddened by atmospheric extinction from that position.<ref name="hinkley63"/><ref name=lynn1905>{{cite journal |bibcode=1905Obs....28..289L |title=The brightest fixed star and its name |last1=Lynn |first1=W. T. |journal=The Observatory |year=1905 |volume=28 |page=289 }}</ref>

In 2016, the [[International Astronomical Union]] organized a [[IAU Working Group on Star Names|Working Group on Star Names]] (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars.<ref name="WGSN">{{cite web | url=https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/ | title=IAU Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) | website=iau.org | publisher=[[International Astronomical Union]] | access-date=22 May 2016}}</ref> The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN, which included ''Canopus'' for this star.<ref name="WGSN1">{{cite web | url=https://www.iau.org/static/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/WGSN_bulletin1.pdf | title=Bulletin of the IAU Working Group on Star Names, No. 1 | website=iau.org | publisher=International Astronomical Union | access-date=2020-09-06 }}</ref> Canopus is now included in the ''IAU Catalog of Star Names''.<ref name="IAU-CSN">{{cite web | url=https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming_stars/ | title=IAU Catalog of Star Names | website=iau.org | publisher=International Astronomical Union | access-date=2020-09-06}}</ref>

Canopus traditionally marked the steering oar of the ship [[Argo Navis]].<ref>{{cite journal | title = On Frederick de Houtman's Catalogue of Southern Stars, and the Origin of the Southern Constellations | last1= Knobel|first1=E. B. |journal = [[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]] | volume= 77| issue= 5 | pages=414–432 [422] | bibcode = 1917MNRAS..77..414K |date=1917 | doi=10.1093/mnras/77.5.414| doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="ridpathCr"/> German celestial cartographer [[Johann Bayer]] gave it—as the brightest star in the constellation—the [[Bayer designation|designation]] of ''α&nbsp;Argus'' ([[Latinisation of names|Latinised]] to ''Alpha Argus'') in 1603. In 1763, French astronomer [[Nicolas Louis de Lacaille]] divided the huge constellation into three smaller ones,<ref name=Glass2012>{{cite book | title=Nicolas-Louis De La Caille, Astronomer and Geodesist | first=Ian Stewart | last=Glass | date=November 17, 2012 | page=73 | isbn=9780191649608 | publisher=OUP Oxford | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eZjlHAIBeRAC&pg=PT73 }}</ref> and hence Canopus became ''α&nbsp;Carinae'' ([[Latinisation of names|Latinised]] to ''Alpha Carinae''). It is listed in the [[Bright Star Catalogue]] as HR 2326, the [[Henry Draper Catalogue]] as HD 45348, and the [[Hipparcos catalogue]] as HIP 30438.<ref name=SIMBAD/> Flamsteed did not number this southern star, but [[Benjamin Apthorp Gould]] gave it the number 7 (7 G. Carinae) in his ''Uranometria Argentina''.<ref name=Gould1878>{{cite journal | title=Uranometria Argentina: Brightness and position of every fixed star, down to the seventh magnitude, within one hundred degrees of the South Pole; with atlas | last=Gould | first=Benjamin Apthorp | journal=Resultados del Observatorio Nacional Argentino | volume=1 | page=140 | date=1878 | bibcode=1879RNAO....1....1G }}</ref>

An occasional name seen in English is ''Soheil'', or the feminine Soheila; in Turkish is ''Süheyl'', or the feminine Süheyla, from the Arabic name for several bright stars, سهيل ''suhayl'',<ref name="hinkley63"/> and Canopus was known as Suhel {{IPAc-en|'|s|uː|h|E|l}} in medieval times.<ref name=kunitzsch/> Alternative spellings include Suhail, Souhail, Suhilon, Suheyl, Sohayl, Sohail, Suhayil, Shoel, Sohil, Soheil, Sahil, Suhayeel, Sohayil, Sihel, and Sihil.<ref name="hinkley63"/> An alternative name was ''Wazn'' "weight" or ''Haḍar'' "ground" , implying the anchor stone used by ship, rather than being related to its low position near the horizon.<ref name="hinkley63"/> Hence comes its name in the ''[[Alfonsine tables]]'', Suhel ponderosus, a Latinization of ''Al Suhayl al Wazn''.<ref name="hinkley63"/> Its Greek name was revived during the [[Renaissance]].<ref name=kunitzsch>{{cite book |last1=Kunitzsch|first1=Paul |last2=Smart|first2=Tim |date = 2006|title = A Dictionary of Modern star Names: A Short Guide to 254 Star Names and Their Derivations |edition = 2nd rev. |publisher = Sky Publishing Corporation |location = Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn = 978-1-931559-44-7 |page = 23}}</ref>