VV(18): Sirius

[Dave Monroe]

"Certain quarters of Paris raved under the heat of Sirius, were touched by 
its halo of plague, which is nine light-years from rim to center." (V., Ch. 
14, Sec. i, pp. 393-4)

As J. Kerry Grant, A Companion to V. (Athens: U of Georgia P, 2001), notes 
...

"Alpha Canis Majoris, the Dog Star, 8.6 light years from the solar system.  
Associated with the so-called dog days of Juloy an August." (p. 172)

A light year, of course, being the distance light travels (in vacuo) in one 
(sidereal) year, which, at roughly 186,000 mi/sec (300,000 km/sec) = er, 
just under 6 trillion miles, or just under 9.5 trillion kilometers.  The 
binary system of Alpha and Proxima Centauri is the nearest solar system to 
our own (4.3 light years away), but Sirius, also part of a binary system 
(with a white dwarf not visible to that proverbial "naked" eye), although 
twice as far away, is the brightest star (not counting, of course, our very 
own Le Soleil) in the sky (that "Morning Star" being, of course, the planet 
Venus [!]).  All sorts of mythological associations, which I'm going to pawn 
off on this most excellent hyperlink ...

http://www.louisville.edu/~aoclar01/ancient/astronomy/Sirius.htm

Which, most immediately for our purposes, points out that  ...

"Sirius derives from the word: Seirios, which means 'the Scorcher.'  As 
these civilizations recognized Sirius' constellation as the Great Dog, the 
term 'Dog Days' came into being, and this term is still in use to this day 
to conote the hottest days of late summer, typically August.

"The Romans continued this tradition. The poet, Vergil, writing in the  
first century BCE, in The Aeneid, states: 'the Dog Star, that burning 
constellation, whe he brings drought and disease to sickly mortals, rises 
and saddens the sky with inauspicious light.'"

And here's a few more fer ya ...

http://www.bartleby.com/65/si/Sirius.html

http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/courses/astro201/sirius.htm

http://www.tmclark.com/Starwatch/3_1.html

Now, I might not be back 'til tomorrow morning, or even tomorrow night, so 
keep in mind, I do intend to get past the first page of the chapter in the 
week ahead.  Any discussion, notes, whatever, will be appreciated ...


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