Canopus, the second-brightest star in the night sky, is in the constellation Carina.
Carina is a southern-sky constellation whose name means “the keel” of a ship. It was once part of the much larger Argo Navis, representing the mythical vessel Argo; astronomers later divided that constellation into Carina, Puppis, and Vela. Canopus is formally designated Alpha Carinae.
Only Sirius appears brighter from Earth. Canopus is a white-hued bright giant roughly 313 light-years away, with a visual magnitude near −0.7. Its great luminosity makes it especially prominent in the Southern Hemisphere, although it is difficult or impossible to see from many northern locations.
A common mix-up is Centaurus, a neighboring constellation that contains Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to the Sun. Canopus is not part of Centaurus: it lies in Carina, near other southern-sky features such as the Carina Nebula and the star cluster IC 2602.