Abstract
One of the most contentious and long-running mysteries regarding Sirius originated in the 2nd century ad with what appears to be a casual comment made by the Alexandrine astronomer/astrologer Claudius Ptolemy (Chapter 3). Books VII and VIII of Ptolemy’s Almagest contain one of the earliest and most famous of the ancient star catalogs, in which Ptolemy lists the positions and brightness of some 1022 stars. He comments on the color of only six of these stars—Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, Pollux, Arcturus, Antares, and Sirius—and assigns the color red to each. In particular, for Sirius in the constellation Canis Major, he states its location, on the dog’s mouth, as well as its relative brightness and color: bright and red.
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Chapter 10
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(2007). A Red Sirius. In: Sirius. Springer Praxis Books. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-48942-1_10
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