Stellar Heirarchies
Posted: 02.10.2004, 00:07
If you go out about 20 light years and turn around, you'll see that Procyon, Sirius, Alpha Centauri, and Sol form a quartet. These four stars are the big boys in our little neighborhood.
This got me interested in studying the relative positions of the brighter stars in the vicinity of Sol and Sirius. The little Ms and most of the Ks are so abundant and dim that they're not as interesting to me.
I had the idea of developing a heirarchy of stars. A star's superior in the heirarchy is the brightest star in its sky that is also more luminous. So Sirius is our superior in the heirarchy. Procyon is the brightest star in Sirius' sky, but it isn't as luminous; Canopus is the next brightest from Sirius' point of view and it's also more luminous, so it is Sirius' superior.
It turns out that Sirius is a local boss. Fellow members of our group include Epsilon Eridani, Keid, and Tau Ceti. Vega, Fomalhaut and Pollux are also nearby bosses. Altair, 61 Cygni, and 70 Ophiuchi belong to Vega. Rho1 Cancri and 11 Leonis Minoris belong to Pollux. No "big name" stars belong to the Fomalhaut group.
Canopus dominates our district. It's over 300 light years away but claims many nearby stars, like Barnard's Star and Epsilon Indi.
The stars of Ursa Major constitute a large complex.
I went through a number of the nearby bright stars and made a new asterisms file that illustrates these heirarchies. I had to do it by hand because I couldn't find a specification of Celestia's stars.dat file format. It might be interesting to see the complete heirarchy.
I have some screenshots and the asterisms file right here but I just realized I don't have any way to upload the files to my website from this machine. I'll add them soon. Does anyone even find this interesting?
This got me interested in studying the relative positions of the brighter stars in the vicinity of Sol and Sirius. The little Ms and most of the Ks are so abundant and dim that they're not as interesting to me.
I had the idea of developing a heirarchy of stars. A star's superior in the heirarchy is the brightest star in its sky that is also more luminous. So Sirius is our superior in the heirarchy. Procyon is the brightest star in Sirius' sky, but it isn't as luminous; Canopus is the next brightest from Sirius' point of view and it's also more luminous, so it is Sirius' superior.
It turns out that Sirius is a local boss. Fellow members of our group include Epsilon Eridani, Keid, and Tau Ceti. Vega, Fomalhaut and Pollux are also nearby bosses. Altair, 61 Cygni, and 70 Ophiuchi belong to Vega. Rho1 Cancri and 11 Leonis Minoris belong to Pollux. No "big name" stars belong to the Fomalhaut group.
Canopus dominates our district. It's over 300 light years away but claims many nearby stars, like Barnard's Star and Epsilon Indi.
The stars of Ursa Major constitute a large complex.
I went through a number of the nearby bright stars and made a new asterisms file that illustrates these heirarchies. I had to do it by hand because I couldn't find a specification of Celestia's stars.dat file format. It might be interesting to see the complete heirarchy.
I have some screenshots and the asterisms file right here but I just realized I don't have any way to upload the files to my website from this machine. I'll add them soon. Does anyone even find this interesting?