Olá!
Diga-me, Caro Leitor,
qual é a estrela que pode ser considerada
como a rainha de todas as demais estrelas?
Sirius!
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0516a/
Sírius está sempre atraindo nossa visão
para seu brilho majestoso,
não é verdade?
Vamos encontrar Sírius atuando enquanto a estrela-alpha de Canis Major,
o Cão Maior,
e apontando, um tantinho mais ao sul,
para o único Objeto Messier acolhido por esta constelação:
M41.
Sempre em lugares de céus escuros e transparentes
e em noites de ausência de Lua,
podemos nos embevecer não somente pela visão da belíssima Sírius
como também pela delicadeza dessa constelação
e por nossa visão enviesada observando M41...;
e, olhando um tantinho adiante ao sul e ao sudoeste,
podemos identificar o paredão de estrelinhas tímidas
que formam a Pôpa do Navio!
Toda esta região é acolhida pela Via Lactea
e nos emociona imensamente!
Com um abraço estrelado,
Janine Milward
http://www.stellarium.org/pt/
http://www.stellarium.org/pt/
http://www.stellarium.org/pt/
http://www.stellarium.org/pt/
http://www.stellarium.org/pt/
Mario Jaci Monteiro - As Constelações, Cartas Celestes - CARJ
CANIS MAJOR, O CÃO MAIOR
Posicionamento:
Ascensão Reta 6h9m / 7h26m Declinação -11o.o / -33o.2
Mito:
O cão que Júpiter colocou para guardar Europa,
a quem o Deus havia roubado e levado para Crete.
Outro mito, entretanto, conta que o Cão poderia representar Laelaps,
o cachorro de Actaeton;
ou o cão da ninfa Procris;
ou o cão que Cephalus deu para Aurora.
Finalmente, um dos cães de Orion, o Gigante Caçador.
Algumas Informações Interessantes acerca esta Constelação:
Os Egípcios representavam Sirius como Anúbis,
o deus com cabeça de chacal.
Sirius aparecia no leste antes da chegada do Sol
quando o Rio Nilo estava prestes a trazer o começo de suas enchentes,
e, dessa forma,
esta estrela era de grande importância
dentro do calendário egípcio.
Fronteiras:
Canis Major faz fronteira com as constelações
Puppis, Monoceros, Lepus, Columba
6a. Edição do Atlas Celeste
de autoria de Ronaldo Rogério de Freitas Mourão,
Editora Vozes, Petrópolis, ano de 1986
Sirius. Alpha Canis
Majoris. Estrela Dupla
Ascensão Reta 06h 44,2m - Declinação -16o 42’
Magnitude visual - 1,58 e 7,6 - Distância 8 anos-luz
Distância entre estrelas 11”,16
O Ardente, nome
latino da estrela mais brilhante, segundo os antigos gregos.
Uma estrela
binária, branco brilhante e amarelo, situada na boca do Cão Maior.
De Seirios,
possivelmente do deus egípcio Osíris.
Entre os egípcios
também era considerada como Thoth e Sothis.
Os chinêses
conheciam como Tseen Lang, o Lobo dos Céus,
e diziam que
quando estava muitíssimo brilhante é porque os ladrões iriam atacar.
Sirius B, a outra
componente, foi a primeira estrela branca anã a ser descoberta.
Sirius, em função
de sua proximidade,
é conhecida como a
estrela mais brilhante.
A bem da verdade,
muitíssimas outras estrelas são mais brilhantes do que Sirius
porém situando-se
extremamente mais distanciadas
e portando
parecendo bem mais pálidas do que esta estrela tão próxima a nós.
Author
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NASA, ESA
Credit: H. Bond (STScI) and M. Barstow (University of Leicester) |
The image of Sirius A and Sirius B taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The white dwarf can be seen to the lower left.[64]
Thediffraction spikes and concentric rings areinstrumental effects.
Mirzam ou Musim - Beta Canis Majoris
É uma estrela que
aparece ainda antes de Sirius, a mais brilhante dos céus,
e por isso
foi chamada pelos egípcios de Aquela que Anuncia.
O Precursor
Daquele que Atravessa a Via Láctea, segundo a uronografia árabe.
A Mediadora,
variante do vocábulo árabe Mirzam ou Mirzar.
Phurud ou Farud - Zeta Canis Majoris
A Única Brilhante,
proveniente do árabe Al Furud, ou talvez por transcrição errônea de Al Kurud, o
Macaco,
referindo-se
às pequenas estrelas que envolvem a constelação de Columba.
Wezen - Delta
Canis Majoris
O Peso, oriundo do
nome árabe Al Wazn, ou seja, o peso,
para designar que
a es trela parece se levantar com dificuldade no horizonte.
Adhara - Epsilon
Canis Majoris
Ascensão Reta 06h
57,8m - Declinação - 28o 57’
Magnitude visual
1,63 - Distância 680 anos-luz
As Virgens.
Denominação árabe para designar, originalmente, o grupo de estrelas Omicron,
Delta, Epsilon e Eta Canis Majoris.
Pi Canis Majoris -
Estrela Dupla
AR
06h53m Dec -20o.04
M 4,6 e 9,5
Distância entre estrelas 12”,00
Aludra - Eta Canis
Majoris
As Virgens, nome
que, segundo a uranografia árabe, designa o asterismo formado por quatro
estrelas.
Alubra - Eta Canis
Majoris
A Pata,
denominação árabe que representa a pata dianteira esquerda do Cão Maior.
Muliphen - Gamma
Canis Majoris
A Pata Estirada, oriundo do árabe Al Muhlifain, que também é usado para
designar Gama, Zeta e Lambda de Argos
e Alpha e Beta Columbae.
6a. Edição do Atlas Celeste
de autoria de Ronaldo Rogério de Freitas Mourão,
Editora Vozes, Petrópolis, ano de 1986
VY Canis
Majoris (VY CMa) is a
red hypergiant in the
constellation Canis
Major. It is
one of the largest known stars by radius and also one of the most luminous of its type. It is approximately 1,420
± 120 solar
radii[8] (equal to 6.6 astronomical units, thus a diameter about
1,975,000,000 kilometres (1.227×109 mi)), and about 1.2 kiloparsecs (3,900 light-years)
distant from Earth. VY CMa is a single star categorized as a semiregular variable and has an estimated period of 2,000 days. It has an average
density of 5 to 10 mg/m3. If placed at the center of the Solar System, VY Canis Majoris's
surface would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter, although there is still
considerable variation in estimates of the radius, with some making it larger
than the orbit of Saturn
"Sun and VY Canis Majoris" by User:Mysid - Self-made in Inkscape.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sun_and_VY_Canis_Majoris.svg#/media/File:Sun_and_VY_Canis_Majoris.svg
Size comparison between
the Sun and VY Canis Majoris
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07h 22m 58.32877s[1]
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−25° 46′ 03.2355″[1]
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Characteristics
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B−V color index
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2.24[4]
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Radial velocity (Rv)
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49 ± 10[4] km/s
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Proper motion (μ)
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Parallax (π)
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Details
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Surface gravity (log g)
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Algumas estrelas monstruosas comparadas com nosso Sol e a órbita de
Júpiter e Neptuno. Da esquerda para a direita: The Pistol Star, Rho
Cassiopeiae, Betelgeuse, e VY Canis Majoris.
VEJA OS VÍDEOS:
O Planeta Terra comparado a uma das maiores
estrelas do Universo
VY Canis Majoris
Escala de corpos celestes - Da Lua à VY Canis
MajorisVY Canis Majoris
Johann Bayer — Canis Major
Star Names
Their Lore and Meaning
by
Richard Hinckley Allen
as reprinted
in the Dover edition, 1963
Their Lore and Meaning
by
Richard Hinckley Allen
as reprinted
in the Dover edition, 1963
The text is in the public domain.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Canis_Major*.html
Fierce on her front the blasting Dog-star glowed.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's On the French Revolution.
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One blazes through the brief bright summer's length,
Lavishing life-heat from a flaming car.
Christina G. Rossetti's's Later Life.
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Canis Major, the Greater Dog,
of the southern heavens, and thus Canis Australior, lies immediately to the southeast of Orion, cut through its centre by the Tropic of Capricorn, and with its eastern edge on the Milky Way.
It is Cane Maggiore in Italy; Cães in Portugal; Grand Chien in France; and Grosse Hund in Germany.
In early classical days it was simple Canis, representing Laelaps, the hound of Actaeon, or that of Diana's nymph Procris, or the one given to Cephalus by Aurora and famed for the speed that so gratified Jove as to cause its transfer to the sky. But from the earliest times it also has been the Dog of Orion to which Aratos alluded in the Prognostica, and thus wrote of in the Phainomena in connection with the Hare:
The constant Scorcher comes as in pursuit,
. . . and rises with it and its setting spies.
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Homer made much of it as Κύων,a but his Dog doubtless was limited to the star Sirius, as among the ancients generally till, at some unknown date, the constellation was formed as we have it, — indeed till long afterwards, for we find many allusions to the Dog in which we are uncertain whether the constellation or its lucida is referred to. Hesiod and Aratos gave this title, both also saying Σείριος, and the latter μέγας; but by this adjective he designed only to characterize the brilliancy of the star, and not to distinguish it from the Lesser Dog. The Greeks did not know the two Dogs thus, nor did the comparison appear till the days of the Roman Vitruvius. p118Ptolemy and his countrymen knew it by Homer's title, and often as Αστροκύων, although it seems singular that the former never used the word Σείριος.
The Latins adopted their Canis from the Greeks, and it has since always borne this name, sometimes even Canicula in the diminutive (with the adjectival candens, shining), Erigonaeus, and Icarius; the last two being from the fable of the dog Maera, — which itself means Shining, — transported here; her mistress Erigone having been transformed into Virgo, and her master Icarius into Boötes. Ovid alluded to this in his Icarii stella proterva canis [Amor. II.16.4]; and Statius mentioned the Icarium astrum, although Hyginus [Fab. 130] had ascribed this to the Lesser Dog.
Sirion and Syrius occasionally appeared with the best Latin authors; and the Alfonsine Tables of 1521 had Canis Syrius.
Vergil brought it into the 1st Georgic [Georg. I.217] as a calendar sign, —
adverso cedens Canis occidit astro, —
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instructing the farmer to sow his beans, lucerne, and millet at its heliacal setting on the 1st of May; the adverso here generally being referred to the well-known reversed position of the figure of Taurus, but may have been intended to indicate the hostility of the Bull to the Giant's Dog that was attacking him.
Custos Europae is in allusion to the story of the Bull who, notwithstanding the Dog's watchfulness, carried off that maiden; and Janitor Lethaeus, the Keeper of Hell, makes him a southern Cerberus, the watch-dog of the lower heavens, which in early mythology were regarded as the abode of demons: a title more appropriate here than for the so-named modern group in the northern, or upper, sky.
Bayer erroneously quoted as proper names Dexter, Magnus, and Secundus, while others had Alter and Sequens; but these originally were designed only to indicate the Dog's position, size, and order of rising with regard to his lesser companion.
The aestifer of Cicero and Vergil referred to its bright Sirius as the cause of the summer's heat, which also induced Horace's invidum agricolis; and Bayer's Ὑδροφοβία was from the absurd notion, prevalent then as now, of the occurrence of canine madness solely during the heat from the Dog-star: an idea first seen with Asclepiades of the 3rd century before Christ. Or it may have come from being confounded by Bayer, none too careful a compiler, with the Ὑδραγωγόν, which Plutarch applied to Sirius in his De Iside,b signifying the Water-bringer, i.e. the cause of the Nile flood.
p119Aratos termed the constellation ποικίλος, as of varying brightness in its different parts; or mottled — the Dog, lying in as well as out of the Milky Way, being thus diversified in light.
In early Arabia, as indeed everywhere, it took titles from its lucida, although strangely corrupted from the original Al Shīʽrā al ‘Abur al Yamaniyyah, the Brightly Shining Star of Passage of Yemen, in the direction of which province it set. Among these we see, in the Latin Almagest of 1515, "canis: et est asehere, alahabor aliemenia"; in the edition of 1551, Elscheere; in Bayer's Uranometria, Elseiri (which Grotius derived from σείριος), Elsere, Sceara, Scera, Scheereliemini; in Chilmead's Treatise, Alsahare aliemalija; and Elchabar, which La Lande, in hisI'Astronomie, not unreasonably derived from Al Kabir, the Great.
The Arabian astronomers called it Al Kalb al Akbar, the Greater Dog, so following the Latins, Chilmead writing it Alcheleb Alachbar; and Al Bīrūnī quoted their Al Kalb al Jabbār, the Dog of the Giant, directly from the Greek conception of the figure. Similarly it was the Persians'Kelbo Gavoro.
It was, of course, important in Euphratean astronomy, and is shown on remains from the temples and mounds, variously pictured, but often just as Aratos described it and as drawn on maps of the present day, — standing on the hind feet, watching or springing after the Hare. Professor Young describes the figure as one "who sits up watching his master Orion, but with an eye out for Lepus."
Bayer and Flamsteed alone among its illustrators showed it as a typical bulldog.
A Dog, presumably this with another adjacent, is represented on an ivory disc found by Schliemann on his supposed site of Troy; and an Etruscan mirror of unknown age bears it with Orion, Lepus, the crescent moon, and correctly located neighboring stars, whileº both of the Dogs, the Dragon, Fishes, Swan, Perseus, the Twins, Orion, and the Hare are described as on the Shield of Hercules in the old poem of that title generally attributed to Hesiod. The Hindus knew it as Mrigavyādha, the Deer-slayer, and as Lubdhaka, the Hunter, who shot the arrow, our Belt of Orion, into the infamous Praja-pati, where it even now is seen sticking in his body; and, much earlier still, with their prehistoric predecessors it was Saramā, one of the Twin Watch-dogs of the Milky Way.
Among northern nations it was Greip, the dog in the myth of Sigurd.
All of these doubtless referred solely to Sirius.
Novidius, who imagined biblical significance in every starry group, said that this was the Dog of Tobias in the Book of Tobit, v.16, which Moxon p120confirmed "because he hath a tayle," and for that reason only; but Julius Schiller, another of the same school, saw here the royal Saint David.
Gould catalogued 178 stars down to the 7th magnitude.
Hail, mighty Sirius, monarch of the suns!
May we in this poor planet speak with thee?
Mrs. Sigourney's The Stars.
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α, Binary, ‑1.43 and 8.5, brilliant white and yellow.
Sirius, the Dog-star, often written Syrius even as late as Flamsteed's and Father Hell's day, has generally been derived from σείριος, sparkling or scorching, which first appeared with Hesiod as a title for this star, although also applied to the sun, and by Abychos to all the stars. Various early Greek authors used it for our Sirius, perhaps generally as an adjective, for we read in Eratosthenes:
Such stars astronomers call σειρίους on account of the tremulous motion of their light;
so that it would seem that the word, in its forms σείρ, σείρος, and σείριος, — Suidas used all three for both sun and star, — originally was employed to indicate any bright and sparkling heavenly object, but in the course of time became a proper name for this brightest of all the stars. Lamb, however, thought it of Phoenician origin, signifying the Chief One, and originally in that country a title for the sun; Jacob Bryant, the mythologist, said that it was from the Egyptians' Cahen Sihor; but Brown considers it a transcription from their well-known Hesiri, the GreekOsiris; while Dupuis distinctly asserted that it was from the Celtic Syr.
Plutarch called it Προόπτης, the Leader, which well agrees with its character and is an almost exact translation of its Euphratean, Persian, Phoenician, and Vedic titles; but Κύων, Κύων σείριος, Κύων ἀστήρ, Σείριος ἀστήρ, Σείριον ἄστρον, or simply το ἄστρον, were its names in early Greek astronomy and poetry. Προκύων, better known for the Lesser Dog and its lucida, also was applied to Sirius by Galen as preceding the other stars in the constellation.
Homer alluded to it in the Iliad as Ὀπωρινός, the Star of Autumn;1 but the season intended was the last days of July, all of August, and part of September — the latter part of summer. Lord Derby translated this celebrated passage:
A fiery light
There flash'd, like autumn's star, that brightest shines
When newly risen from his ocean bath;
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p121while later on in the poem Homer compares Achilles, when viewed by Priam, to
th' autumnal star, whose brilliant ray
Shines eminent amid the depth of night,
Whom men the dog-star of Orion call.
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The Roman farmers sacrificed to it a fawn-colored dog at their three festivals when, in May, the sun began to approach Sirius. These, instituted 238 B.C., were the Robigalia, to secure the propitious influence of their goddess Robigo in averting rust and mildew from their fields; and theFloralia and Vinalia, to ensure the maturity of their blooming flowers, fruits and grapes.
Among the Latins it naturally shared the constellation's titles, probably originated them; and occasionally was even Canicula; indeed, as late as 1420 the Palladium of Husbandry urged certain farm-work to be done "Er the caniculere, the hounde ascende"; and, more than a century later, Eden, in the Historie of the Vyage to Moscovie and Cathay, wrote: "Serius is otherwise called Canicula, this is the dogge, of whom the canicular days have theyr name."c
It has been asserted that Ovid and Vergil referred to Sirius in their Latrator Anubis, representing a jackal, or dog-headed Egyptian divinity, guardian of the visible horizon and of the solstices, transferred to Rome as goddess of the chase; but it is very doubtful whether they had in mind either star or constellation.
Its well-known name, Al Shiʽrā, or Al Siʽrā, extended as al Abūr al Yamaniyyah, much resembles the Egyptian, Persian, Phoenician, Greek, and Roman equivalents, and, Ideler thought, may have had common origin with them from some one ancient, source: possibly the Sanskrit Sūrya, the Shining One, — the Sun. The ʽAbur, or Passage, refers to the myth of Canopus' flight to the South; and the adjective to the same, or perhaps to the southerly position of the star towards Yemen, in distinction from that of Al Ghumaisā᾽ in the Lesser Dog, seen towards Shām, — Syria, — in the North. From these geographical names originated the Arabic adjectives Yamaniyyah and Shamāliyyah, Southern and Northern; although the former literally signifies On the Right-hand Side, i.e. to an observer facing eastward towards Mecca.
In Chrysococca's Tables the title is Σιαὴρ Ιαμανὴ; and Doctor C. Edward Sachau's translation of Al Bīrūnī's Chronology renders it Sirius Jemenicus. Riccioli had Halabor, which the 1515 Almagest applied to the constellation; and Chilmead, Gabbar, Ecber, and Habor; while Shaari lobur, another p122queerly corrupted form, is found in Eber's Egyptian Princess. In the Alfonsine Tables the original is changed to Asceher and Aschere Aliemini; while Bayer gives plain Aschere and Elscheere for the star, with others similar for both star and constellation. Scera is cited by Grotius for the star, and Sceara for the whole, derived from an old lexicon; and Alsere; but he traced all to Σείριος.
In modern Arabia it is Suhail, the general designation for bright stars.
The late Finnish poet Zakris Topelius accounted for the exceptional magnitude of Sirius by the fact that the lovers Zulamith the Bold and Salami the Fair, after a thousand years of separation and toil while building their bridge, the Milky Way, upon meeting at its completion,
Straight rushed into each other's arms
And melted into one;
So they became the brightest star
In heaven's high arch that dwelt —
Great Sirius, the mighty Sun
Beneath Orion's belt.
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The native Australians knew it as their Eagle, a constellation by itself; while the Hervey Islanders, calling it Mere, associated it in their folklore with Aldebaran and the Pleiades.
Sharing the Sanskrit titles for the whole, it was the Deer-slayer and the Hunter, while the Vedas also have for it Tishiya or Tishiga, Tistrija,Tishtrya, the Tistar, or Chieftain's, Star. And this we find too in Persia; as also Sira. The later Persian and Pahlavi have Tir, the Arrow. Edkins, however, considers Sirius, or Procyon, to be Vanand, and Arcturus, Tistar.
Hewitt sees in Sirius the Sivānam, or Dog, of the Rig Veda awakening the Ribhus, the gods of mid-air, who "thus calls them to their office of rain sending," a very different office from that assigned to this star in Rome. Yet these gods, philologically, had a Roman connection, for Professor Friedrich Maximilian Mueller, writing the word Arbhu, associates it with the Latin Orpheus. Hewitt also says that in the earliest Hindu mythology Sirius was Sukra, the Rain-god, before Indra was thus known; and that in the Avesta it marked one of the Four Quarters of the Heavens.
Although the identification of Euphratean stellar titles is by no means settled, especially and singularly so as to this great star, yet various authorities have found for it names more or less probable.
Berlin and Brown think it conclusively proved that it was Kak-shisha, the Dog that Leads, and "a Star of the South"; while Kak-shidi is Sayce's transliteration of the original signifying the Creator of Prosperity, a character which the Persians also assigned to it; and it may have been the p123Akkadian Du-shisha, the Director — in Assyrian Mes-ri-e. Epping and Strassmaier have Kak-ban as a late Chaldaean title, which Brown rendersKal‑bu, the Dog, "exactly the name for Sirius we should expect to find"; Jensen has Kakkab lik-ku, the Star of the Dog, revived in Homer's κύων; and it perhaps was the Assyrian Kal-bu Sa-mas, the Dog of the Sun; and the Akkadian Mul-lik-ud, the Star Dog of the Sun. Jensen also givesKakkab kasti, the Bow Star, although this may be doubtful; and Brown has, from the Assyrian, Su-ku-du, the Restless, Impetuous, Blazing, well characterizing the marked scintillation and color changes in its light. Hewitt cites an Akkadian title Tis-khu.
Its risings and settings were regularly tabulated in Chaldaea about 300 B.C., and Oppert is reported to have recently said that the Babylonian astronomers could not have known certain astronomical periods, which as a matter of fact they did know, if they had not observed Sirius from the island of Zylos in the Persian Gulf on Thursday, the 29th of April, 11542 B.C.!º
It is the only star known to us with absolute certitude in the Egyptian records — its hieroglyph, a dog, often appearing on the monuments and temple walls throughout the Nile country. Its worship, chiefly in the north, perhaps, did not commence till about 3285 B.C., when its heliacal rising at the summer solstice marked Egypt's New Year and the beginning of the inundation, although precession has now carried this rising to the 10th of August. At that early date, according to Lockyer, Sirius had replaced γ Draconis as an orientation point, especially at Thebes, and notably in the great temple of Queen Hatshepsu, known to-day as Al Dēr al Bahārī, the Arabs' translation of the modern Copts' Convent of the North. Here it was symbolized, under the title of Isis Hathor, by the form of a cow with disc and horns appearing from behind the western hills. With the same title, and styled Her Majesty of Denderah, it is seen in the small temple of Isis, erected 700 B.C., which was oriented toward it; as well as on the walls of the great Memnonium, the Ramesseum, of Al Ḳurneh at Thebes, probably erected about the same time that this star's worship began. Lockyer thinks that he has found seven temples oriented to the rising of Sirius. It is also represented on the walls of the recently discovered step-temple of Saḳḳara, dating from about 2700 B.C., and supposed to have been erected in its honor.
Great prominence is given to it on the square zodiac of Denderah, where it is figured as a cow recumbent in a boat with head surmounted by a star; and again, immediately following, as the goddess Sothis, accompanied by the goddess Anget, with two urns from which water is flowing, emblematic p124of the inundation at the rising of the star. But in the earlier temple service of Denderah it was Isis Sothis, at Philae Isis Sati, or Satit, and, for a long time in Egypt's mythology, the resting-place of the soul of that goddess, and thus a favorable star. Plutarch made distinct reference to this [de Iside 359D]; although it should be noted that the word Isis at times also indicated anything luminous to the eastward heralding sunrise. Later it was Osiris, brother and husband of Isis, but this word also was applied to any celestial body becoming invisible by its setting. Thus its titles noticeably changed in the long period of Egypt's history.
As Thoth, and the most prominent stellar object in the worship of that country, — its heliacal rising was in the month of Thoth, — it was in some way associated with the similarly prominent sacred ibis, also a symbol of Isis and Thoth, for, in various forms, the bird and star appear together on Nile monuments, temple walls, and zodiacs.
Sirius was worshiped, too, as Sihor, the Nile Star, and, even more commonly, as Sothi and Sothis, its popular Graeco-Egyptian name, theBrightly Radiating One, the Fair Star of the Waters; but in the vernacular was Sept, Sepet, Sopet, and Sopdit; Sed,2 and Sot, — the Σήθ of Vettius Valens.
Upon this star was laid the foundation of the Canicular, Sothic, or Sothiac Period named after it, which has excited the attention and puzzled the minds of historians, antiquarians, and chronologists. Lockyer has an admirable discussion of this in his Dawn of Astronomy.
Sir Edwin Arnold writes of it in his Egyptian Princess:
And even when the Star of Kneph has brought the summer round,
And the Nile rises fast and full along the thirsty ground;
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for the Egyptians always attributed to the Dog-star the beneficial influence of the inundation that began at the summer solstice; indeed, some have said that the Aethiopian Nile took from Sirius its name Siris, although others consider the reverse to be the case. Minsheu, who dwells much on this, ends thus: "Some thinke that the Dog-starre is called Sirius, because at the time the Dogge-starre reigneth, Nilus also overfloweth as though the water were led by that Starre." Indeed, it has been fancifully asserted that its canine title originated in Egypt, "because of its supposed watchful care over the interests of the husbandman; its rising giving him notice of the approaching overflow of the Nile."
Caesius cited for it Solechin as from that country, signifying the Starry Dog, and derived from the Egypto-Greek word Σολεκήν.
p125Perhaps it is the ancient importance of this Dog on the Nile that has given the popular name, the Egyptian X, to the figure formed by the stars Procyon and Betelgeuze, Naos and Phaet, with Sirius at the vertices of the two triangles and the centre of the letter. On our maps Sirius marks the nose of the Dog.
The Phoenicians are said to have known it as Hannabeah, the Barker.
The astronomers of China do not seem to have made as much of Sirius as did those of other countries, but it is occasionally mentioned, with other stars in Canis Major, as Lang Hoo; and Reeves quoted for it Tseen Lang, the Heavenly Wolf. Their astrologers said that when unusually bright it portended attacks from thieves.
Some have called it the Mazzārōth of the Book of Job; others the Ḣaṣīl of the Hebrews; but this people also knew it as Sihor, its Egyptian name, and Ideler thinks that the adoration of the Sɛērīm, or "Devils" of the Authorized Version of our Bible, the "He Goats" of the Revision, which, as we see in Leviticus xvii.7, was specially prohibited to the Jews, may have had reference to Sirius and Procyon, the Two Sirii or Shiʽrayān, that must have been well known to them in the land of their long bondage as worshiped by their taskmasters.
The culmination of this star at midnight was celebrated in the great temple of Ceres at Eleusis, probably at the initiation of the Eleusinian mysteries; and the Ceans of the Cyclades predicted from its appearance at its heliacal rising whether the ensuing year would be healthy or the reverse. In Arabia, too, it was an object of veneration, especially by the tribe of Kais, and probably by that of Kodhā'a, although Muḥammad expressly forbade this star-worship on the part of his followers. Yet he himself gave much honor to some "star" in the heavens that may have been this.
In early astrology and poetry there is no end to the evil influences that were attributed to Sirius.
Homer wrote, in Lord Derby's translation,
The brightest he, but sign to mortal man
Of evil augury.
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Pope's very liberal version of the same lines, —
Terrific glory! for his burning breath
Taints the red air with fevers, plagues and death, —
|
seems to have been taken from the Shepheard's Kalendar for July:
The rampant Lyon hunts he fast with dogge of noysome breath
Whose baleful barking brings in hast pyne, plagues and dreerye death.
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Spenser, however, was equally a borrower, for we find in the Aeneid:
p126The dogstar, that burning constellation, when he brings drought and diseases on sickly mortals, rises and saddens the sky with inauspicious light;
and in the 4th Georgic:
Jam rapidus torrens sitientes Sirius Indos
Ardebat coelo,
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rendered by Owen Meredith in his Paraphrase on Vergil's Bees of Aristaeus:
Swift Sirius, scorching thirsty Ind,
Was hot in heaven.
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Hesiod advised his country neighbors, "When Sirius parches head and knees, and the body is dried up by reason of heat, then sit in the shade and drink," — advice universally followed, even till now, although with but little thought of Sirius. Hippocrates made much, in his Epidemics andAphorisms, of this star's power over the weather, and the consequent physical effect upon mankind, some of his theories being current in Italy even during the last century; while the result of all physic depended upon the sign of the zodiac in which the sun chanced to be. Manilius wrote of Sirius:
from his nature flow
The most afflicting powers that rule below.
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But these expressions as to the hateful character of the Dog-star may have been induced in part from the evil reputation of the dog in the East.
Its heliacal rising, 400 years before our era, corresponded with the sun's entrance into the constellation Leo, that marked the hottest time of the year, and this observation, originally from Egypt, taken on trust by the Romans, who were not proficient observers, and without consideration as to its correctness for their age and country, gave rise to their dies caniculariae, the dog days, and the association of the celestial Dog and Lion with the heat of midsummer. The time and duration of these days, although not generally agreed upon in ancient times, any more than in modern, were commonly considered as beginning on the 3d of July and ending on the 11th of August, for such were the time and period of the unhealthy season of Italy, and all attributed to Sirius. The Greeks, however, generally assigned fifty days to the influence of the Dog-star. Yet even then some took a more correct view of the matter, for Geminos wrote:
It is generally believed that Sirius produces the heat of the dog days; but this is an error, for the star merely marks a season of the year when the sun's heat is the greatest.
But he was an astronomer.
p127The idea prevailed, however, even with the sensible Dante in his "great scourge of days canicular"; while Milton, in Lycidas, designated it as "the swart star." And the notion holds good with many even to the present time. This character doubtless is indicated on the Farnese globe, where the Dog's head is surrounded with sun-rays.
But Pliny took a kinder view of this star, as in the "xii. chapyture of the xi. booke of his naturall hystorie," [XI.XII.30] on the origin of honey:
This coometh from the ayer at the rysynge of certeyne starres, and especially at the rysynge of Sirius, and not before the rysynge of Vergiliae (which are the seven starres cauled Pleiades) in the sprynge of the day;
although he seems to be in doubt whether "this bee the swette of heaven, or as it were a certeyne spettyl of the starres." This idea is first seen in Aristotle's History of Animals. So, too, in late astrology wealth and renown were the happy lot of all born under this and its companion Dog. Our modern Willis wrote in his Scholar of Thebet ben Khorat:
Mild Sirius tinct with dewy violet,
Set like a flower upon the breast of Eve.
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When in opposition Sirius was supposed to produce the cold of winter.
It has been in all history the brightest star in the heavens, thought worthy by Pliny of a place by itself among the constellations, and even seen in broad sunshine with the naked eye by Bond at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and by others at midday with very slight optical aid; but its color is believed by many to have changed from red to its present white. This question recently has been discussed, by See in the affirmative and Schiaparelli in the negative, at a length not allowing repetition here, the weight of argument, however, seeming to be against the admission of any change of color in historic times.
Aratos' term ποικίλος, applied to the Dog, is equally appropriate to Sirius now in the sense of many-colored or changeful, and is an admirable characterization, as one realizes when watching this magnificent object coming up from the horizon on a winter evening. Tennyson, who is always correct as well as poetical in his astronomical allusions, says in The Princess:
the fiery Sirius alters hue
And bickers into red and emerald;
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this, of course, being largely due to its marked scintillation; and Arago gave Barāḳish as an Arabic designation for Sirius, meaning Of a Thousand p128Colors; and said that as many as thirty changes of hue in a second had been observed in it.3
Sirius, notwithstanding its brilliancy, is by no means the nearest star to our system, although it is among the nearest; only two or three others having, so far as is yet known, a smaller distance. Investigations up to the present time show a parallax of 0ʺ.39, indicating a distance of 8.3 light years, nearly twice that of α Centauri.
Some are of the opinion that the apparent magnitude of Sirius is partly due to the whiteness of its tint and its greater intrinsic brilliancy; and that the red stars, Aldebaran, Betelgeuze, and others, would appear much brighter than now if of the same color as Sirius; rays of red light affecting the retina of the eye more slowly than those of other colors. The modern scale of magnitudes that makes this star ‑1.43, — about 9½ times as bright as the standard 1st-magnitude star Altair (α Aquilae), — would make the sun ‑25.4, or 7000 million times as bright as Sirius; but, taking distance into account, we find that Sirius is really forty times brighter than the sun.
Its spectrum, as type of the Sirian in distinction from the Solar, gives name to one of the four general divisions of stellar spectra instituted by Secchi from his observations in 1863‑67; these two divisions including nearly 11/12 of the observed stars. Of these about one half are Sirian of a
brilliantly white colour, sometimes inclining towards a steely blue. The sign manual of hydrogen is stamped upon them with extraordinary intensity
by broad, dark shaded lines which form a regular series.
It is found by Vogel to be approaching our system at the rate of nearly ten miles a second, and, since Rome was built, has changed its position by somewhat more than the angular diameter of the moon.
It culminates on the 11th of February.
The celebrated Kant thought that Sirius was the central sun of the Milky Way; and, eighteen centuries before him, the poet Manilius said that it was "a distant sun to illuminate remote bodies," showing that even at that early day some had knowledge of the true character and office of the stars.
Certain peculiarities in the motion of Sirius led Bessel in 1844, after ten years of observation, to the belief that it had an obscure companion with which it was in revolution; and computations by Peters and Auwers led Safford to locating the position of the satellite, where it was found as p129predicted on the 31st of January, 1862, by the late Alvan Clark,4 at Cambridgeport, Mass., while testing the 18½-inch glass now at the Dearborn Observatory. It proved to be a yellowish star, estimated as of the 8½ magnitude, but difficult to be seen because of the brilliancy of Sirius, and then 10ʺ away; this diminishing to 5ʺ in 1889; and last seen and measured by Burnham at the Lick Observatory before its final disappearance in April, 1890. Its reappearance was observed from the same place in the autumn of 1896 at a distance of 3ʺ.7, with a position angle of 195°. It has a period of 51½ years, and an orbit whose diameter is between those of Uranus and Neptune; its mass being one third that of Sirius and equal to that of our sun, although its light is but 1/10000 its principal, soº that it may be supposed to be approaching non-luminous solidity, — one of Bessel's "dark stars."
It is remarkable that Voltaire in his Micromegas of 1752, an imitation of Gulliver's Travels, followed Dean Swift's so‑called prophetic discovery of the two moons of Mars by a similar discovery of an immense satellite of Sirius, the home of his hero. Swift, however, owed his inspiration to Kepler, who more than a century previously wrote to Galileo:
I am so far from disbelieving in the existence of the four circumjovial planets, that I long for a telescope to anticipate you, if possible, in discovering two round Mars (as the proportion seems to me to require), six or eight round Saturn, and perhaps one each round Mercury and Venus.
Other stars are shown by the largest glasses in the immediate vicinity of Sirius, two additional having very recently been discovered by Barnard at the Yerkes Observatory.
M41,
O OBJETO MESSIER
NA DIREÇÃO DA CONSTELAÇÃO CANIS MAJOR
Messier 41
Open Cluster M41 (NGC 2287), type 'e', in Canis Major![[m41.jpg]](http://messier.obspm.fr/Jpg/m41.jpg)
| Right Ascension | 06 : 46.0 (h:m) |
|---|---|
| Declination | -20 : 44 (deg:m) |
| Distance | 2.3 (kly) |
| Visual Brightness | 4.5 (mag) |
| Apparent Dimension | 38.0 (arc min) |
Discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654. Perhaps known to Aristotle about 325 B.C.
Open star cluster Messier 41 (M41, NGC 2287) is lying about 4 degrees nearly exactly south of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. It contains about 100 stars, including several red (or orange) giants, the brightest being of spectral type K3 and mag 6.9, and situated near the cluster's center. This star is about 700 times more luminous than our Sun. The stars are distributed over a volume about 25 or 26 light years across, and all receding from us at 34 km/sec. As they are at a distance of 2,300 light years, they appear scattered over an area of 38 arc minutes diameter.
The age of M41 was estimated at 190 million years (Sky Catalog 2000) and 240 million years (G. Meynet's Geneva Team). ..............................
J.E. Gore mentions that M41 was "possibly" recorded by Aristotle about 325 B.C.; this would make it the "faintest object recorded in classical antiquity" (from Burnham). However, this identification is uncertain: A.A. Barnett presumes that Aristotle may have described the Milky Way near the star d CMa.
Hodierna was the first to catalog it before 1654, and it got generally known after John Flamsteed's independent rediscovery of February 16, 1702, who remarks (No. 965 in his catalog): "Near this star (12 CMa), there is a cluster." It was independently found again by Le Gentil in 1749, and apparently by Charles Messier, who added it to his catalog on January 16, 1765.
................................................
This cluster is easy to find, as it is nearly exactly south of Sirius, at an angular distance of 4 degrees.
LEIA MAIS
em
http://www.stellarium.org/pt/
http://www.stellarium.org/pt/
http://www.stellarium.org/pt/
M41 - NGC 2287 - Aglomerado aberto
Ascensão Reta 06h46m Declinação - 20o.43
Magnitude fotográfica global 5,0 Magnitude fotográfica da mais brilhante estrela 8,8
Distância kpc 0,66 Diâmetro 32’ Tipo Espectral B4
Um aglomerado muito brilhante e visível a olho nu
e bem resolvido através um pequeno telescópio,
a cerca de 1.300 anos-luz de distância.
6a. Edição do Atlas Celeste
de autoria de Ronaldo Rogério de Freitas Mourão,
Editora Vozes, Petrópolis, ano de 1986
Messier 41 (também conhecido como M41 ou NGC 2287) é um aglomerado estelar aberto na constelação de Canis Major. Foi descoberto por Giovanni Battista Hodierna em1654 e foi, talvez, conhecido por Aristóteles, cerca de 325 a.C.1 M41 fica a cerca de quatro graus quase exatamente ao sul de Sirius. Ele contém cerca de 100 estrelas, incluindo várias gigantes vermelhas, a mais brilhante é do tipo espectral K3 gigante perto do centro do aglomerado. Estima-se que o aglomerado está se afastando de nós a 23,3 km/s.2 O diâmetro do aglomerado é entre 25 e 26 anos-luz. Sua idade é estimada entre 190 e 240 milhões de anos.
.....................................
John Ellard Gore afirma que o aglomerado aberto foi visto por Aristóteles em 325 a.C., o que classificaria M41 como oobjeto do céu profundo de menor brilho já visto naAntiguidade. Entretanto, a declaração não e ponto comum entre os historiadores da astronomia. A.A. Barnett afirma que não foi o aglomerado que Aristóteles descreveu, mas sim um pedaço da Via-Láctea próxima à estrela Delta Canis Majoris.3
Giovanni Battista Hodierna foi o primeiro a catalogar o aglomerado antes de 1654, embora viesse a ser conhecido após a redescoberta independentemente de John Flamsteedem 16 de fevereiro de 1702. Foi novamente redescoberto por Guillaume Le Gentil em 1749, e por Charles Messier, que o adicionou em seu catálogo em 16 de janeiro de 1765.3
| Messier 41 | |
Messier 41 | |
| Descoberto por | Giovanni Battista Hodierna |
| Data | 1654 |
| Dados observacionais (J2000) | |
| Constelação | Canis Major |
| Tipo | I,3,r |
| Asc. reta | 06h 46m |
| Declinação | -20° 46′ |
| Distância | 2 300 anos-luz (710 parsec) |
| Magnit. apar. | 4,5 |
| Características físicas | |
| Raio | 12,5 anos-luz |
| Idade estimada | 190 a 240 milhões de anos |
| Outras denominações | |
| M41, NGC 2287 | |
 | |
NGC 2362 -
Um belo grupo de estrelas , um dos aglomerados mais jovens conhecido,
com cerca de 1 milhão de anos.
Ascensão Reta
07h18m Declinação - 24o.54
Magnitude
fotográfica global 3,8 Magnitude fotográfica da mais brilhante estrela 9,4
Distância kpc 1,64 Diametro 7’ Tipo Espectral O9
NGC 2362 é um aglomerado aberto na direção da constelação de Canis Major. O objeto foi
descoberto pelo astrônomo Giovanni Hodierna em 1654, usando um telescópio refrator. Devido a sua
moderada magnitude aparente (+3,8),
é visível apenas com telescópios amadores
ou com equipamentos superiores.
Origem
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Autor
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian
CfA
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The Night Sky Atlas
Visible in August before
dawn, to April after dusk, best in December.
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Canis
Major: Visible in August before dawn, to April after dusk, best in
December.
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ε
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Epsilon
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´maidens´
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η
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Eta
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´maidenhood´
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ζ
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Zeta
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´solitary ones´
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β
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Beta
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?? (no known translation)
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γ
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Gamma
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´the two causing dispute
and the swearing of an oath´
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α
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Alpha
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´scorching´
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δ
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Delta
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´weight´
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Named
Stars Index - The Night Sky Atlas
DSO Names - The Night Sky
Atlas
Canis
Major: Visible in September before dawn, to May after dusk, best
in January.
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07h 20.0m
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-30° 00.0´
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dwarf galaxy in Local
Group; closest statellite to our Milky Way
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NGC2359
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07h 18.5m
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-13° 13.5´
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(Deep Sky List)
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NGC2362
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07h 18.7m
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-24° 57.3´
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(Bill Arnett) = Tau CMa
cluster
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06h 56.3m
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-24° 44.0´
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Open Cluster Cr 121
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NGC2362
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07h 18.7m
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-24° 57.3´
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(Bill Arnett), = Mexican
Jumping Star
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NGC2359
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07h 18.5m
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-13° 13.5´
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(Bill Arnett)
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07h 23.9m
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-32° 12.0´
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Cr 140 (in CMa)
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Asterisms - The Night Sky
Atlas
Canis
Major: Visible in September before dawn, to May after dusk, best
in January.
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5
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15'
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6 stars; just naked eye
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5
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2 deg
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Collinder 140; from Steve
Coe; giant naked eye cluster is pretty bright spot south of tail of Canis
Major
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Principal Stars of Canis
Major - The Night Sky Atlas
Multiple Stars of Canis
Major - The Night Sky Atlas
NGC Objects in Canis Major
- The Night Sky Atlas
IC Objects in Canis Major -
The Night Sky Atlas
Galaxy Clusters of Canis
Major - The Night Sky Atlas
Os
desenhos formados pelas estrelas são como janelas que se abrem para a
infinitude do universo
e
que possibilitam nossa mente a ir percebendo que existe mais, bem mais, entre o
céu e a terra
bem
como percebendo que o caos, vagarosamente, vai se tornando Cosmos
e
sendo por nossa mente conscientizado.
Quer
dizer, nossa mente é tão infinita quanto o Cosmos é infinito.
COM UM ABRAÇO
ESTRELADO,
Janine Milward
