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Choosing "birthday stars"
What follows is a new convention that I believe is more practical than
the conventional approach. When the clock strikes midnight and your birthday celebrations commence, there is at least one prominently bright star crossing the meridian of the night sky. This object is more significant than any other crossing the meridian at that instant and, rightly, it is your "birthday star", special and unique to you and only you, to usher in your happiest hour of the year. The conventional “birthday star” definition has been “the star whose light left its surface, heading for Earth, on the day you were born”. So for example, if you are now 42, your birthday star would be the bright winter star, Capella (42 light-years distant). This would mean you have to pick a different birthday star every single year, at different distances from Earth as you get older, year by year. Even worse, there are no birthday stars for ages 1, 2, 3, 5, etc. There is a birthday star for your fourth birthday (i.e. Alpha Centauri, 4.3 light-years away) and a birthday star for your sixth birthday (i.e. Barnard’s Star, nearly 6 light-years away). I've come up with another way of "fixing" your birthday star once and for all, for the whole of one's life :-) Obviously birthdays are very personal things and people can mark their commencement however they like. On the eve of one's birthday, at midnight, if you're reasonably lucky enough you may spot a bright star - one of the more prominent ones out of the top 100 brightest stars in the sky:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brightest_stars Reaching its highest point in the sky just as the clock rolls forward to midnight and your birthday arrives. So, what I'm proposing is why not let the culmination of one of these stars herald the arrival of your birthday? Clearly, numerous stars are going to be crossing the midnight meridian on the eve of your birthday... but it is the most *prominent* object out of the lot that should be assigned as your birthday star. And here is my *provisional* list of bright stars that culminate at midnight on various birthday dates through the year: 02-Jan Sirius 04-Jan Adhara (Epsilon Canis Majoris) 07-Jan Wezen (Delta Canis Majoris) 14-Jan Castor 15-Jan Procyon 17-Jan Pollux 31-Jan Beehive open cluster (M44) 12-Feb Alphard 22-Feb Regulus 25-Feb Algieba (Gamma Leonis) 20-Mar Denebola (Beta Leonis) 28-Apr Spica 04-May Alkaid (Eta Ursae Majoris) 11-May Arcturus 19-May Izar (binary star Epsilon Bootis) 31-May Alphekka 14-Jun Antares 01-Jul Rasalhague 13-Jul Kaus Australis (Epsilon Sagittarii) 16-Jul Vega 30-Jul Albireo 04-Aug Altair 17-Aug Deneb 02-Sep Enif (Epsilon Pegasi) 21-Sep Fomalhaut 08-Oct Alpheratz 17-Oct Diphda (Beta Ceti) 24-Oct Mirach 12-Nov Mirphak (Alpha Persei) 18-Nov Pleiades star cluster (M45) 30-Nov Aldebaran 10-Dec Rigel 11-Dec Capella 20-Dec Betelgeuse I really admire anyone born on 2nd January... for at midnight on 1st January, it is none other than the brilliant "Sirius" that culminates due south at midnight on New Years night! If you were born on Jan 2nd... your birthday star will be the brightest star in the whole night sky! |
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