01/22/2018 – Ephemeris – The Pup

Ephemeris for Monday, January 22nd. The Sun will rise at 8:11. It’ll be up for 9 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 5:37. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 11:24 this evening.

Sirius is the brightest night-time star and is located in the southeast at 9 p.m. below and a bit left of Orion the Hunter. We’ve visited Sirius last week. There is another star in the Sirius system that is practically invisible due to its dazzling glare. It’s Sirius B, nicknamed the Pup, alluding to Sirius’ Dog Star title. The tiny star was suspected as far back as 1834 due to Sirius’ wavy path against the more distant stars. Sirius is only 8.6 light years away. Sirius A and the Pup have 50 year orbits of each other. The star was first seen by Alvan Clark in 1862 while testing a new telescope. The Pup was the first of a new class of stars called white dwarfs. The Pup is about the size of the Earth, with the mass of our Sun, and 5 times hotter than the Sun’s surface. It’s out of fuel and slowly collapsing.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Orion and Canis Major Animation for 9 p.m. January 20, 2017. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.

Sirius A & B’s path in the sky showing the wobble that betrayed the Pup’s presence. Credit Mike Guidry, University of Tennessee.

Sirius A and B (near the diffraction spike to the lower left), A Hubble Space Telescope photograph. Credit NASA, ESA.