The night sky in Flamingo as seen during the winter months. The stars of Orion dominate the southern sky along with Canopus. Canopus is seen here about 10° above the horizon, the bright star directly over the fire pit. In the 1965 Frank Herbert's novel Dune, Canopus is the host star to the spice planet Arrakis. The star Canopus is 310 light years from Earth and is 10,000 times the luminosity of our sun. When seen from latitudes south of 37° 18′ S, Canopus is a circumpolar star. Since Canopus is so far south in the sky, it never rises in mid- to far-northern latitudes. It's my favorite star to track in the winter sky.