extinction from that position. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN, which included Canopus for this star. Canopus is now included in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. Canopus traditionally marked the rudder of the ship Argo Navis. German celestial cartographer Johann Bayer gave it—as the brightest star in the constellation—the designation of α Argus (Latinised to Alpha Argus) in 1603. In 1763, French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille divided the huge constellation into three smaller ones, and hence Canopus became α Carinae (Latinised to Alpha Carinae). It is listed in the Bright Star Catalogue as HR 2326, the Henry Draper Catalogue as HD 45348, and the Hipparcos catalogue as HIP 30438. Flamsteed did not number this southern star, but Benjamin Apthorp Gould gave it the number 7 (7 G. Carinae) in his Uranometria Argentina. An occasional name seen in English is Soheil, or the feminine Soheila; in Turkish is Süheyl, or the feminine Süheyla, from the Arabic name for several bright stars, سهيل suhayl, and Canopus was known as Suhel in medieval times. Alternative spellings include Suhail, Souhail, Suhilon, Suheyl, Sohayl, Suhayil, Shoel, Sohil, Soheil, Sahil, Suhayeel, Sohayil, Sihel, and Sihil. An alternative name was Wazn "weight" or Haḍar "ground", possibly related to its low position near the horizon. Hence comes its name in the Alfonsine tables, Suhel ponderosus, a Latinization of Al Suhayl al Wazn. Its Greek name was revived during the Renaissance. Observation The Spanish Muslim astronomer Ibn Rushd went to Marrakesh (in Morocco) to observe the star in 1153, as it was invisible in his native Córdoba, Al-Andalus. He used the different visibility in different latitudes to argue that the earth is round, following Aristotle's argument which held that such an observation was only possible if the earth was a relatively small sphere. English explorer Robert Hues brought Canopus to the attention of European observers in his 1592 work Tractatus de Globis, along with Achernar and Alpha Centauri, noting:"Now, therefore, there are but three Stars of the first magnitude that I could perceive in all those parts which are never seene here in England. The first of these is that bright Star in the sterne of Argo which they call