Extraterrestrial Skies - Sun

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:

    The sun is shining.
    The shadows of the lovers have disappeared.
    They are all eyes; they have some demand on me—
    They want me to be more serious than I want to be.
    Louis Simpson (b. 1923)

    That the sun will not rise to-morrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise.
    David Hume (1711–1776)

    I’ve tried not to exaggerate the glory of athletes. I’d rather, if I could, preserve a sense of proportion, to write about them as excellent ballplayers, first-rate players. But I’m sure I have contributed to false values—as Stanley Woodward said, “Godding up those ballplayers.”
    The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.
    Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)