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 (17111776)
“Ive tried not to exaggerate the glory of athletes. Id rather, if I could, preserve a sense of proportion, to write about them as excellent ballplayers, first-rate players. But Im sure I have contributed to false valuesas Stanley Woodward said, Godding up those ballplayers.
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”
—Samuel Beckett (19061989)