Holberg Jay B. Sirius. Brightest Diamond in the Night Sky

Springer, 2007. — 259 p.This book tells two stories. The first and most obvious is why the star known as Sirius has been regarded as an important fixture of the night sky by many civilizations and cultures since the beginnings of history. A second, but related, narrative is the prominent part that Sirius has played in how we came to achieve our current scientific understanding of the nature and fate of the stars. This is the first book to integrate the cultural history of Sirius with modern astrophysics in a way which provides a realistic view of how science progresses over time.Ancient Sirius
The Goddess of the Eastern Horizon
The Dog Star
The Nature of the Stars
From Myth to Reality
A Dark Star Prophesied
A Dark Star Revealed
The Physics of the Stars
An Odd Pair
Giants among the Dwarfs
A Matter of Degeneracy
Einstein's Well
A Controversial and Occult Sirius
A Red Sirius
Modern Mysteries
A Contemporary and Future Sirius
A View from Space
Past, Present, and Future
AppendicesProperties of the Sirius System