The sky's brightest star - Sirius - is a double star. Here's how to see its small companion, Sirius B, or the Pup, which orbits the larger primary star.
Binary stars - a star system consisting of two stars - are extremely useful. They give all the information needed to measure the stars masses. Here is how.
Posted by EarthSky Voices in Brightest Stars |
February 4, 2021
The sky’s brightest star – Sirius – is a double star. A small white dwarf called Sirius B, or the Pup, orbits the larger primary star. The Pup isn’t easy to spot, but it is possible. Here’s how.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Teoh at Heng Ee Observatory in Penang, Malaysia, captured this photo of Sirius A and Sirius B (a white dwarf) on January 26, 2021. He used 30 1-second exposures and stacked them together to make faint Sirius B appear. Thank you, Michael!
Sirius the Dog Star is the brightest star in the night sky, visible anywhere on Earth except the far north. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere at a temperate latitude, Sirius is the very bright white star due south every winter in the evening. But did you know that Sirius is also a double star? The companion, Sirius B, also known as
Above: Manish Mamtani captured the full Cold Moon over Maine’s Nubble Lighthouse, which was lit up for the holiday season in 2019. Many called this full moon the last of the decade. View at EarthSky Community Photos.
To many, the last full moon of the decade came last year, on December 12, 2019. But purists will call the December 2020 full moon the last full moon of the decade. It happens on December 29 or 30, depending on your time zone (more full for the Americas on the night of December 29; round and full on December 30, too, for everywhere worldwide). Like every full moon, December’s full moon has its own special characteristics. And like every full moon, it carries a name. At northerly latitudes, we call the December full moon the Cold Moon or Long Night Moon. It shines in the sky from dusk to dawn, like a wonderful nocturnal sun, giving us a much-appreciated reprieve in the season of diminished daylight.
By Yucatan Times on December 22, 2020
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This is how the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was seen in the Yucatan Peninsula and other places.
MERIDA Yucatan (Times Media Mexico) – The long-awaited night finally arrived; on December 21, the sky gave way to an astronomical phenomenon widely expected by many: the conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn, which had not been seen for more than 800 years.
The alignment between Jupiter and Saturn could be seen from December 16, although its peak was this December 21. This astronomical phenomenon is known as the “
great conjunction” and has not occurred since the 13th century.
The last recorded was, according to astronomy experts, in 1226. According to some versions, the so-called Great Conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn would have given rise to the Star of Bethlehem’s biblical story. Although science