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Choosing "birthday stars"



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 25th 10, 04:41 AM posted to uk.sci.astronomy
Abdul Ahad
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Posts: 15
Default 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!
  #2  
Old December 26th 10, 10:15 PM posted to uk.sci.astronomy
Dr J R Stockton[_94_]
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Posts: 3
Default Choosing "birthday stars"

In uk.sci.astronomy message bba211c1-2220-4e39-a6ab-ba729113badf@z19g20
00yqb.googlegroups.com, Fri, 24 Dec 2010 19:41:56, Abdul Ahad
posted:

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.


As the midnight starting a date moves around the world, from east of NZ
to west of HI, the Earth will move in its orbit by about a degree and
the meridian will shift accordingly by about a degree across the
Heavenly Sphere. The selected star therefore depends on one's current
longitude.

The "night" part of the meridian is 180 degrees long on the ground, and
the portion of the "Heavenly Meridian" that one can see depends on one's
latitude. The selected star therefore depends on one's current
latitude.

The year is not a multiple of a day long; it is nearly a quarter of a
day longer. The meridian will move correspondingly along the heavens,
in sawtooth fashion. The selected star therefore depends on the current
year.

ISTM better to choose the brightest star nearest overhead at the
location and time of one's birth. To get a clear decision, it will be
necessary to weight the brightness (either minus the magnitude or the
flux density) by a suitable function (the inverse square, ISTM) of the
angular distance of the star from the zenith or nadir at the location
and time of delivery.


For your list of bright stars : remember that many are never visible
from all inhabited latitudes.

--
(c) John Stockton, nr London, UK. Turnpike v6.05.
Website http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - w. FAQish topics, links, acronyms
PAS EXE etc. : http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/ - see in 00index.htm
Dates - miscdate.htm estrdate.htm js-dates.htm pas-time.htm critdate.htm etc.
  #3  
Old December 28th 10, 09:08 AM posted to uk.sci.astronomy
Abdul Ahad
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15
Default Choosing "birthday stars"

On Dec 26, 9:15*pm, Dr J R Stockton
wrote:

As the midnight starting a date moves around the world, from east of NZ
to west of HI, the Earth will move in its orbit by about a degree and
the meridian will shift accordingly by about a degree across the
Heavenly Sphere. *The selected star therefore depends on one's current
longitude.

The "night" part of the meridian is 180 degrees long on the ground, and
the portion of the "Heavenly Meridian" that one can see depends on one's
latitude. *The selected star therefore depends on one's current
latitude.

The year is not a multiple of a day long; it is nearly a quarter of a
day longer. *The meridian will move correspondingly along the heavens,
in sawtooth fashion. The selected star therefore depends on the current
year.

ISTM better to choose the brightest star nearest overhead at the
location and time of one's birth. *To get a clear decision, it will be
necessary to weight the brightness (either minus the magnitude or the
flux density) by a suitable function (the inverse square, ISTM) of the
angular distance of the star from the zenith or nadir at the location
and time of delivery.

For your list of bright stars : remember that many are never visible
from all inhabited latitudes.



Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

With slightly more than 365 days in the year, the Sun moves almost 1°
eastwards along the ecliptic each day.
This translates to an almost one-degree advance in Right Ascension of
the line of sky that successively transits the meridian from one
midnight to the next. This in turn means that there will be a fraction-
of-a-degree difference in transit times of any particular star across
the various international time zones of the globe.

Since the Greenwich meridian is internationally accepted as the
standard "Prime Meridian" of the world, so my list is to be based on
*that* meridian for an observer located along that line of meridian
running through Greenwich, England.

I am further extending my list so that there will be at least one
prominent celestial object crossing the meridian at each and every
single midnight of the year. Furthermore, I am proposing to identify
*two* prominent objects along that narrow one-degree strip of Right
Ascension of the sky, so that they are suitably spaced apart in
northerly and southerly Declinations, making them accessible for
viewing from all inhabited regions of the globe.

  #4  
Old December 28th 10, 09:25 AM posted to uk.sci.astronomy
Abdul Ahad
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15
Default Choosing "birthday stars"

One more point I missed out, having discussed it over on the
Cloudynights forum on December 19th.

Precession.

As small as it is...about every half a century the list will need a
small tweak to allow for precession.

 




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