The New Year is here.
Susan Jensen
As the new year approaches, if you're tired of the mundane, look out at the stars at midnight. There is a magical thing in the starry sky that happens every year when the New Year comes, but it is rarely talked about.
This is that every year from December 31 to January 1 and around midnight in the days before and after midnight, Sirius, the brightest star in the Earth's night sky, will rise to the middle sky, that is, to reach the highest point in the night sky it can reach.
Because of the Earth's rotation, the starry sky rises in the east and sets in the west, and the time of a star's rise is changing from moment to moment. They rise early and set about two hours late every month. Strictly speaking, the time it takes for a star to reach the middle sky is different every day. Therefore, Sirius is located in the middle of the sky every year when the New Year comes, which can be said to be a very magical thing. For this reason, Sirius is also called the "New Year's Star" in some parts of the country.
Sirius belongs to the constellation Canis Majoris and is the alpha star of Canis Major (meaning number one). It is the brightest star in the night sky.
The brightest star, meaning that no other star in the sky is brighter than the Sun. Of course, this is only to say from the earth. Sirius is certainly no brighter than the Moon, as well as planets such as Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, and even Mars and Mercury occasionally brighter than it. But Sirius is the brightest of all the stars in the night sky. It's almost twice as bright as the second-ranked oldest star.
It's easy to find Sirius. It's right on the edge of orion. Near the left-hand extension of the orion belt, the brightest star is it. The trick to identifying stars is that stars will flicker, while planets won't. Sirius is also one of the three stars that make up the Great Winter Triangle, the other two being Betelgeuse and Minamikawa III.
Sirius is about 2.6 parsecs from Earth, which equates to 8.6 light-years. The relative proximity is one of the reasons it's so bright. Another reason is that it's really bright in itself.
Sirius is actually a pair of binary stars. The primary star in a Sirius binary is a white main sequence star, while the companion star is a white dwarf that no longer has nuclear fusion. The companion became a red giant about 120 million years ago, "one step ahead." Sirius' host star is 2 times the mass of the Sun and reaches 25 times the luminosity of the Sun.
Sirius has a special meaning in many ancient cultures around the world, including ancient Chinese. Perhaps some special meaning is one of the reasons why it is not often talked about as a "New Year's star". Interested friends can go to check the information, here will not expand.
I wish you all a Happy New Year and world peace.
How to find Sirius.
reference The star Sirius rings in the New Year https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/star-sirius-torchbearer-of-the-new-year/