MDMD2: The Learned English Dog

[Jasper Fidget]

To ancient Mediterranians, the period around August (late July to early
Sept) was called the "Dog Days" because the star Sirius (the Dog Star in the
constellation Canus Major, which is our brightest star exluding Sol) was
then in conjuntion with the sun, and they believe it added its own heat to
the day (of course it's really hot that time of year), causing summer.
Also, this connotation was associated with a belief that during this annual
period, dogs were more likely to become rabid and start biting people.

To European sailors, the Dog Star is of great navigational importance, as it
is used to find quite a few other fixed stars.  During the Dog Days, when
the star is hidden, some measurements were often impossible to make, and
others less precise.  Ships were lost for this reason, and the Dog Days of
Summer took on a special dread for mariners.

Here's some other interesting Sirius stuff:

*Sirius was a matter of omens for the Egyptians, who believed that if, on
the star's pre-dawn appearance--the heliacal rising that marked the
beginning of their year and was the herald for the flooding of the Nile
valley: thus, Sirius-Isis, a fertility sign--if it was strong and bright,
then the harvest would be good; if dim and brown, then the harvest would be
bad.  (To the Greeks as well: Homer has all kinds of harvest and, like,
carpentry instructions on what to do depending on where Sirius is in the
sky).  The Egyptians built great structures to Sirius, pyramidal shafts that
point to it; and somebody recently contended that the body of the Sphinx was
not a lion's but dog's.

*The 5th Rated British Frigate HMS Sirius was lost at Mauritius (SW Indian
Ocean near Madagascar) in 1810 while under fire by French vessels during the
Battle of Grand Port.  The French had held the island since 1721 and used it
as a base from which to attack British ships bound for India.  Having
suffered severe damage and unable to continue the fight, the captain ordered
the ship burned rather than let the enemy have her (another British frigate
was lost there, and two ships taken).  Grand Port is regarded as Napoleon's
only naval victory.

*It might also be worth noting that Sirius has an "invisible twin" (inferred
in 1834 by Bessel, "discovered" in 1862 by Clark), which is to say it's a
binary star, its twin being a white dwarf called the Pup.

Jasper Fidget