Abstract
HAS SIRIUS CHANGED COLOUR?—Much has been written on this question in recent years. Prof. T. J. J. See, in a Sondemummer of vol. 229 of Astr. Naeh., collected a large amount of evidence from classical sources which certainly appeared on the face of it to establish that Sirius was ranked with orbs of undoubted redness like Antares. The a priori improbability of such a change in 2000 years is so great that most astronomers seek some way of escape from this conclusion. Sirius can be seen closer to the horizon than most stars, and in that position it is truly said that it “alters hue, and bickers into red and yellow.” In Egypt especially, where the heliacal rising of Sirius was watched for as a sign of the rising of the Nile, it must often have been observed near the horizon.
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Our Astronomical Column. Nature 121, 296 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/121296a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/121296a0