Highly correlated ab initio calculations have been performed for an accurate determination of the electronic structure of the low-lying electronic states of the CaO molecule. The computations are done using the aug-cc-pV5Z basis set for O and the cc-pCV5Z for Ca. The potential energy curves for the molecular states correlating to the lowest three asymptotes are calculated at the CASSCF level. The potential curves of the lowest five molecular states, X(1)Sigma(+), a(3)Pi, A'(1)Pi, b(3)Sigma(+) and A(1)Sigma(+), and the corresponding dipole moment functions have been determined using internally contracted multi-reference configuration interaction approaches. The spectroscopic constants associated with these electronic states are compared to experimental values. The corresponding electronic wavefunctions have also been analyzed using the dipole moment functions. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.