Canopus, also known as Alpha Carinae, was an inhabited planetary system in the Beta Quadrant.
In 2257, the location of this system was labeled on the star chart showing the trajectory of Lieutenant Spock's shuttle. (DIS: "An Obol for Charon")
In 2267, USS Enterprise helmsman Hikaru Sulu used Canopus as a reference point to plot the location of the Enterprise after it was flung five hundred parsecs by the Metrons. (TOS: "Arena")
In 2293, Alpha Carinae's location in the Milky Way Galaxy was labeled in the star chart "The Explored Galaxy", which was on display in Captain James T. Kirk's quarters aboard the USS Enterprise-A. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country okudagram)
In 2365, the location of Alpha Carinae was labeled in a Subspace Comm Net Ops star chart, which was seen in the courtroom on Starbase 173. This system was linked to Alfa 177 and an unnamed location. (TNG: "The Measure Of A Man")
In August 2024, an annotated computer paste-up of this star chart was put up for auction in the Entertainment Memorabiliia Live Auction: Los Angeles Summer 2024 by Propstore Auction. This chart was made before the canonical association between Alpha Carinae and Canopus was established, so that there two locations for this system shown on the chart. [1]
In 2366, in an alternate timeline, during the Federation-Klingon War, the location of Alpha Carinae was labeled on a tactical situation monitor on the bridge and in the ready room of the USS Enterprise-D. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise" okudagram)
In 2367, the location of Alpha Carinae was labeled on a tactical situation monitor in Captain Benjamin Maxwell's ready room on the USS Phoenix. (TNG: "The Wounded" okudagram)
| Canopus (Alpha Carinae) system |
|---|
| Alpha Carinae II • Canopus III • Alpha Carinae V • Canopus Major • Canopus Planet |
Appendices[]
Background information[]
Star charts seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine located Alpha Carinae (Canopus) in the Alpha Quadrant. This was retconned for Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, which have star charts locating Alpha Carinae (Canopus) in the Beta Quadrant.
Alpha Carinae and Canopus both seen on the tactical situation monitor
Canopus and Alpha Carinae were depicted as being two separate stars on a star chart first seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and subsequently reused in a number of Star Trek episodes. In reality, these are two different names for the same star. [2] This contradiction is also noted in the Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 115. A map seen in the Star Trek: Discovery episode "An Obol for Charon" correctly gave both names for the same celestial object.
The Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 115 described Canopus, the primary of this system, as a red supergiant star and said it was used as a navigational reference by Voyager series probes and other NASA spacecraft.
According to Star Trek: Star Charts (p. 65) and Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library ("Federation Historical Highlights, 2161-2385"), Canopus (Alpha Carinae) was a F-class star.
For Star Trek: First Contact, Alex Jaeger created a ship size comparison chart for Industrial Light & Magic. On this chart, one of the names considered for the Norway-class starship was the USS Canopus. [3]
External links[]
- Canopus at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Canopus at Wikipedia
- Canopus at the Internet Stellar Database