In Greek, it means "before the dog" because when viewed from most places in the northern hemisphere, it rises slightly earlier than Sirius - the Dog Star. It is the eighth brightest star in the sky (0.5 mag) and one of the closest, located 11.4 light-years away from us. Among the bright stars, it is only closer to Alpha Centauri and Sirius. Procyon is easy to find, forming an equilateral triangle with the stars Sirius and Betelgeuse, which spans across the celestial equator and is visible from all latitudes. It is called the Winter Triangle, and its curiosity is that it is best seen above the horizon during the peak of the local summer in the southern hemisphere. Over the course of 1000 years, Procyon will move across the stellar background by the diameter of the Moon, which is 1.25" per year.