"Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Intrinsically, Sirius is over 20 times brighter than our Sun and over twice as massive. As Sirius is 8.7 light years distant, it is not the closest star system -- the Alpha Centauri system holds this distinction. Sirius is called the Dog Star because of its prominence in the constellation of Canis Majoris (Big Dog). In 1862, Sirius was discovered to be a binary star system with a companion star, Sirius B, 10,000 times dimmer than the bright primary, Sirius A." AAB.
Explanation: It was a sky for the imagination. In the early evening last week, the sky illuminating the
unaided eye was perhaps even more illuminating to the mind's eye. The unaided eye saw clouds framing the
Moon setting over a calm and reflective bay,
spruce trees lining the nearby shores, the
Pleiades open star cluster (M45) glowing prominently in the center of the sky, the
Andromeda galaxy hovering just over the horizon on the right, and the
belt stars of Orion lined up on the left, just below the bright orange star
Betelgeuse. The bright star
Sirius peeked out of the trees on the far left. The
mind's eye might further imagine, however, some of the
constellations coming to life, with
Orion the Hunter taking up his sword and shield, followed into battle by his
Big Dog (
Canis Major, whose right eye is Sirius), and watched from across the sky by
Cassiopeia, the Queen of
Ethiopia, sitting on her Throne. The above image was taken over
Pleasant Bay,
Maine,
USA, and digitally merged with constellations from
Uranographicarum, drawn in the 17th century by J. Hevelius.
