Sun
The closest thing the Sun has to a North polar star is HD 176668, a faint (magnitude 6.50) star in the constellation Draco. It is about 2.3 degrees off the Sun's polar axis. A better choice for putative Sun dwellers, assuming they could see the sky, would be δ Draconis, which is much brighter (magnitude 3.07; it is the fourth brightest star in that constellation) although 4.3 degrees off. The Sun's South polar star turns out to be 34 Carinae, also a faint (magnitude 6.03) star, 2.2 degrees off, with the bright star α Pictoris (magnitude 3.24), 4.1 degrees away, as competing choice.
Read more about this topic: Extraterrestrial Skies
Famous quotes containing the word sun:
“Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory:”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm LXXXIV (l. LXXXIV, 9–11)
“Surely Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal—”
—Stephen Spender (1909–1995)
“When the ice is covered with snow, I do not suspect the wealth under my feet; that there is as good as a mine under me wherever I go. How many pickerel are poised on easy fin fathoms below the loaded wain! The revolution of the seasons must be a curious phenomenon to them. At length the sun and wind brush aside their curtain, and they see the heavens again.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)