Dog Star n. Sirius, a star of the constellation Canis Major, or the Greater Dog, and the brightest star in the heavens; called also Canicula, and, in astronomical charts, alpha Canis Majoris. See Dog days.
... Express," never stopping night or day and going at the rate of a mile a minute, almost 50,000,000 years to travel from the earth to this star. The next of the fixed stars and the brightest in all the heavens is that which we call Sirius or the Dog Star. It is double the distance of Alpha Centauri, that is, it is eight "light years" away. The distances of about seventy other stars have been ascertained ranging up to seventy or eighty "light years" away, but of the others visible to the naked eye they are too far distant ... — Marvels of Modern Science • Paul Severing
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