Doggie Treats

Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, highlights this view of the front of Canis Major, the big dog. The constellation is low in the south as night falls in March, and is easy to pick out even from light-polluted cities. The star Mirzam shines to the right of Sirius, with the star cluster M41 below Sirius, near the bottom of the image. Under dark skies, the cluster is just visible to the unaided eye, although you'll need binoculars to find it under brighter skies. [Christos Doudoulakis/Wikimedia]