The Two Dog Stars, Sirius and Procyon

Teacher’s Story

If a line from Aldebaran pass through the belt of Orion and is extended about as far on the other side, it will reach the Great Dog Star, following at Orion’s heels. This is Sirius, (Sir´-e-us) the most brilliant of all the stars in our skies, glinting with ever changing colors, sometimes blue, at others rosy or white. It must have been of this star that Browning wrote:

“All that I know
Of, a certain star
Is, it can throw
(Like the angled spar)
Now a dart of red,
Now a dart of blue.”

Sirius is a comparatively young star, and is estimated by Proctor to have a diameter of about twelve million miles or fourteen times that of our own sun; it is only eight and one-half light-years away from us and is the most celebrated star in literature. The ancients knew it, the Egyptians worshipped it, Homer sang of it, and it has had its place in the poetry of all ages.

Procyon, (pro´-se-on) the Little Dog Star, was so-called perhaps because it trots up the eastern skies a little ahead of the magnificent Great Dog Star; it gives out eight times as much light as our sun, and is only ten light-years away from us. It has a fainter companion about three or four degrees to the northwest of it.