Product Description

Of all the fixed stars in the night sky, Sirius is by far the brightest – almost twice as bright as its nearest rival, the star Canopus, which lies too far south to be viewed from most of the Northern Hemisphere. Only the Sun, Moon and the planets Venus, Jupiter and, at times, Mars, appear brighter. Sirius, with its flashing brilliance, is a striking feature of the northern winter sky and has understandably drawn the attention of observers of the night sky for thousands of years. Sirius has many names.  Astronomers recognize over fifty designations for the star, but the most commonly used is Alpha Canis Majoris, the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major.  This is Latin for the 'Great Dog', which has led to its popular nickname the ‘Dog Star’. Over the centuries many beliefs have come to be associated with Sirius. Some of these beliefs still echo in such phrases as ‘the dog days of summer’, which the ancient Romans understood well. Other old beliefs long ago fell from public consciousness — only to be revived and to grow into modern popular and scientific controversies. Although these beliefs may seem quite recent, many have their origins in the ancient lore surrounding Sirius; humans seem naturally drawn to its brilliance, and a surprising number of modern cults have nucleated around beliefs in which Sirius plays a prominent role.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #341488 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 250 pages

About the Author
The author, Jay Holberg, is well known, both as an historian and as an astrophysicist, and in telling the story of Sirius he is able to integrate the history of the star with modern astrophysics in a way which provides a realistic view of how science progresses over time.

Customer Reviews

A wide ranging tour of stars and scientific controversy
Sirius - the brightest star in the night sky - has been a source of continual fascination to humans. Four thousand years ago, the ancient Egyptians regulated their calendars according to its first appearance each year in the morning sky. More recently, in the nineteenth century, astronomers were perplexed by the star's odd movement: they eventually deduced that this must be caused by a dark, dense companion - but the exact nature of it defied understanding for many decades, being much more bizarre than could have been guessed. The story of Sirius is therefore very wide ranging, from pre-history down the ages to many of the most intriguing mysteries and problems of stellar astronomy.

Jay Holberg is superbly qualified to guide the reader through this story, having studied the Sirius system for many years, and being a co-author of the definitive research paper on the white dwarf companion. The greatest strength of the book is his treatment of scientific controversy, which is masterful - being fair, thorough and dispassionate. In particular, his description of the famous conflict between Eddington and Chandrasekhar is refreshing compared to the more sensationally psychological treatment that has been given to it in recent years. Another issue concerns the landmark research in 1925 by WS Adams in which the gravitational redshift was found to be in accordance with theory: unfortunately, the theoretical prediction and Adams' results were equally wrong. In recent years, Adams has been pilloried for this: he has been cited as a prime example of a scientist finding what he was looking for, instead of being objective. Holberg shows instead how the particular details of the Sirius system could easily have deceived Adams, and that he can be exonerated from the charge of moulding his results to fit the theory.

The climax of the book is the story of how he and his colleagues obtained time with the Hubble Space Telescope to study the white dwarf, thus enabling them to determine its characteristics with unprecedented precision. Holberg's excitement breaks through his normally calm style - and rightly so. Science is exciting, and Holberg's story allows the reader to share it.

The book presumes at least some familiarity with astronomy. Nevertheless, for a general reader looking for a well-written description of the way science works, as told by a professional scientist, this is an excellent book.

Declared interest: Jay Holberg is a friend of mine and a former colleague.

The Dog Star Rules
Like so many others before me I first encountered the mysteries of the Dog Star three decades ago when I came across the ground-breaking book 'The Sirius Mystery' by Robert Temple. If, like me you also read it and were left for a thirst for more insight into this most fascinating stellar body then this book will be like an oasis in a desert.

In 'Sirius: Brightest Diamond in the Night Sky' the author approaches the mysteries of Sothis from a mainly astronomical perspective. Unfortunately as fascinating as this is it does sometimes get bogged down in too much technical and historical astrophysical material for my liking. Nevertheless the chapter on how the star was originally described as 'red' ties up some previously un-resolved issues rather nicely and the whole publication is very well-researched and attractively presented with illustrations throughout.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and when juxtaposed with Robert Temples' research they jointly reveal a glimpse into what many believe to be one of the greatest enigmas of our current age - the important role that Sirius plays in human evolution.