Out to Lunch

This is Lana’s star from part one of Halfway Across…

My astronomy is SO off! Sirius isn’t really blue, though it does look kinda blue in the sky. It is in fact a white star and you can see Sirius in the evening this time of the year. It’s very bright, you can’t miss it. Have a look at this map to find it.

Good news on the story front anyway, part 3 of Lana’s story has been written, as I mentioned on the home page, I do have quite a few screenshots to take now, but I plan on getting it done by the end of the month. But we’ll see.

Quick sky notes. 04.00 Universal time, looking south.

A lovely view of Orion and Canis Major. Very bad seeing this morning, Sirius was flickering so badly it looked red. I tried to swing it like Dr Bates said, but it still flickered like anything. Oh well. I also saw two planets, which I guessed were Mars and Venus (and I was right, surprisingly!). Venus looked crescent-shaped through binoculars, but it’s hard to tell for sure as my binoculars are meant for birdwatching, not skywatching. Aldebaran in Taurus, Canis Minor, Auriga and Gemini were also visible. Nice view of the Pleiades, but it looked like a small blue cloud with my crummy eyes. Argh! another reason I need to see a Bates teacher!

Zoomed in:

Yah, I forgot to get a close-up look of the Hyades, perhaps I’ll try again tomorrow morning. But I did have a look at Orion’s sword. My binoculars are only 10×32s or something, the crummy roof prisms type, and because the objective lenses are so small M42 (the nebula in Orion’s sword) appeared grey, which is a beastly shame, but what do you expect from freebie binocs, eh?

And this is what the Pleiades really look like:

AKA Sirius, the brightest star in the sky

Canis Major has always been a kind of special constellation for me, along with other favourites like Lyra, Cygnus, Orion and Boötes. It was amongst the first constellations I identified. Sirius (alpha [α] canis majoris) is the brightest star in the sky at magnitude -1.4, which makes is quite easy to identify, even in bright city skies. Canis Major is located east of Orion, and if you follow Orion’s three belt stars down you will find Sirius.

Historically, many cultures have attached special significance to Sirius. Sirius was worshipped as Sothis in the valley of the Nile long before Rome was founded. The Middle Kingdom of Egyptians based their calendar on the heliacal rising of Sirius, which occurred just before the annual flooding of the Nile and the summer solstice. In Greek mythology, Orion’s dog became Sirius. The Greeks also associated Sirius with the heat of summer: they called it Σείριος Seirios, often translated “the scorcher.” The dog days of summer were also connected to Sirius.

Photo © by Akira Fujii

And you’ll understand the significance of this just as soon as I’ve finished part 2 of Lana’s story. I don’t know when that will be.