03/02/2021 – Ephemeris – Sirius and the Pup

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, March 2nd. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 6:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:16. The Moon, halfway from full to last quarter, will rise at 10:51 this evening.

Sirius is the brightest night-time star and is located in the south at 9 p.m. below and a bit left of Orion the Hunter. We’ve visited Sirius a month ago. But there is another star in the Sirius system that is practically invisible due to Sirius’ dazzling glare. Its name is 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 in the sky. Sirius and the Pup have 50-year orbits of each other. The Pup was first seen in 1862. It was the first of a new class of stars to be discovered, white dwarfs. The Pup is a dying star with the mass of the Sun, collapsed down to the size of the Earth after running out of hydrogen fuel in its core.

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

Addendum

A Sirius finder animation for late January/early February at around 8 pm. Even in bright moonlight the seven bright stars of Orion can be seen. The three stars of Orion’s belt make a great pointer to Sirius. Created using Stellarium, GIMP and Libreoffice (for the arrow).

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 imaged by two different space telescopes, revealing dramatically different views! Hubble’s image (left) shows Sirius A shining brightly in visible light, with diminutive Sirius B a tiny dot. However, in Chandra’s image (right) tiny Sirius B is dramatically brighter in X-rays! The “Universe in a Different Light” activity highlights more surprising views of some familiar objects: http://bit.ly/different-light-nsn NASA, ESA, H. Bond (STScI), and M. Barstow (University of Leicester) (left); NASA/SAO/CXC (right).