Orion the Hunter and Sirius the Dog Star
5 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight is Wednesday, Aug 27 2008
The very noticeable constellation Orion the Hunter can be seen ascending in the southeast before dawn at this time of year. Orion will be visible in the evening by winter, but right now the Hunter lords over the southeastern sky at dawn’s first light.
Orion was low in the west after sunset last spring, and, in early summer, this constellation was behind the sun as seen from Earth. Orion only returned to visibility in Earth’s sky about a month ago. (See our July 28 sky chart.) When a constellation becomes visible again, after being behind the sun, it always appears over the eastern predawn horizon. Because – as Earth orbits the sun – all the stars rise two hours earlier with each passing month, Orion is now higher at dawn than a month ago.
As seen from the northern hemisphere, Orion precedes Sirius the Dog Star into the sky. After Orion first appears at morning dawn, you can count on Sirius to appear in the morning sky a few weeks later. You should be able to see Sirius at or before dawn right now – unless you live at far northern latitudes. But even there, it won’t be much longer!
what happened to mars on the 27th?
me,
Every year, in August, the rumor returns about the planet Mars being as large and as bright as the full moon. On August 27, 2003, Mars came marginally closer to Earth than it had for tens of thousands of years before that. Even so, Mars was nowhere the size of Earth’s moon. Larry Sessions elaborates in his 2007 Mars Hoax article.
Bruce
Hey George,
Hope you aren’t offended by my sending you this.
Ciao,
Rog
is there any planet system in sirius’ space?
if any planet of sirius have water and temperature at earth order may be there is any form life!
tasos,
To the best of my knowledge, there is no planetary system around Sirius. However, Sirius is well known for its white dwarf companion star. A white dwarf is an exceedingly dense dead star that has shrunk to about the size of Earth but has the approximate mass of the sun.
Bruce