The stars in the Big Dipper and Little Dipper help navigators locate the North Star. Following the five stars in the Five Star Trail—the municipalities of Hempfield Township, Youngwood, South Greensburg, Southwest Greensburg, and Greensburg—takes travelers on a more northeastern tack. All five towns in the constellation partnered to create the nearly 7.8-mile trail southeast of Pittsburgh.
Following the concept of the Five Star trail these caches will be named for different constellations.
Canis Major is a constellation in the southern sky. Its name means “the greater dog” in Latin. Canis Major represents the bigger dog following Orion, the hunter in Greek mythology. The dog is often depicted pursuing a hare, represented by the constellation Lepus. The smaller dog is represented by the neighboring constellation Canis Minor.
Both dog constellations are among the 48 Greek constellations, first catalogued by Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria in his Almagest in the 2nd century CE.
Canis Major is home to Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, as well as to several notable deep sky objects: the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, the open cluster Messier 41, the emission nebula NGC 2359 (also known as Thor’s Helmet), and the colliding spiral galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163.