"The Sky People The Sky People is an alternate history science fiction novel by American writer S. M. Stirling. It was first published by Tor Books in hardcover in November 2006, with a book club edition co-published with the Science Fiction Book Club following in December of the same year. Tor issued paperback, ebook and trade paperback editions in October 2007, April 2010 and May 2010, respectively. Audiobook editions were published by Tantor Media in January 2007. The book takes place on the planet Venus in an alternate solar system where probes from the United States of America and the"
"from extreme polar locations. Mars is at its brightest when it is in opposition, which occurs approximately every twenty-five months. Jupiter and Saturn are the largest of the five planets, but are farther from the Sun, and therefore receive less sunlight. Nonetheless, Jupiter is often the next brightest object in the sky after Venus. Saturn's luminosity is often enhanced by its rings, which reflect light to varying degrees, depending on their inclination to the ecliptic; however, the rings themselves are not visible to the naked eye from the Earth. Uranus and sometimes the asteroid Vesta are in principle visible to"
"Sirius in fiction The planetary systems of stars other than the Sun and the Solar System are a staple element in much science fiction. Sirius, a double star system with the binary designation Sirius AB, is the brightest stellar object in the night sky. Its component stars are Sirius A (the primary—twice as massive and 25 times more luminous than the Sun) and Sirius B (the secondary—a faint white dwarf). The distance separating Sirius A from its companion varies between 8.1 and 31.5 AU, reflecting the eccentricity of their mutual orbits. The system contains no known extrasolar planets (see ""Traveller"""
"Historical brightest stars The Solar System and all of the visible stars are in different orbits about the core of the Milky Way galaxy. Thus, their relative positions change over time, and for the nearer stars this movement can be measured. As a star moves toward or away from us, its apparent brightness changes. Sirius is currently the brightest star in Earth's night sky, but it has not always been so. Canopus has persistently been the brightest star over the ages; other stars appear brighter only during relatively temporary periods, during which they are passing the Solar System at a"
"the star when rising left the viewer with the impression that it was red. To the naked eye, it often appears to be flashing with red, white and blue hues when near the horizon. With an apparent magnitude of −1.46, Sirius is the brightest star system in the night sky, almost twice as bright as the second brightest star, Canopus. From Earth, Sirius always appears dimmer than Jupiter and Venus, as well as Mercury and Mars at certain times. Sirius is visible from almost everywhere on Earth, except latitudes north of 73° N, and it does not rise very high"
"Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon, outshining the planets Jupiter and Saturn but, while these rise high in the sky, Venus never does. This may lie behind myths about deities associated with the morning star proudly striving for the highest place among the gods and being cast down. In Greek mythology, Hesiod calls Phosphorus a son of Astraeus and Eos, but other say of Cephalus and Eos, or of Atlas. The Latin poet Ovid, speaking of Phosphorus and Hesperus (the Evening Star, the evening appearance of the planet Venus) as identical, makes"
"Earth's sky, among other reasons, many telescopes are put outside of the Earth's atmosphere, where not only light pollution, but also atmospheric distortion and obscuration are minimized. The most commonly observed objects tend to be ones that do not require a telescope to view, such as the Moon, meteors, planets, constellations, and stars. The Moon is a very commonly observed astronomical object, especially by amateur astronomers and skygazers. This is due to several reasons: the Moon is the brightest object in the night sky, the Moon is the largest object in the night sky, and the Moon has long been"
"it doesn't include Gliese 710 which in about 1.35 million years time is expected to be close enough to have a magnitude of -2.7. Historical brightest stars The Solar System and all of the visible stars are in different orbits about the core of the Milky Way galaxy. Thus, their relative positions change over time, and for the nearer stars this movement can be measured. As a star moves toward or away from us, its apparent brightness changes. Sirius is currently the brightest star in Earth's night sky, but it has not always been so. Canopus has persistently been the"
"or good binoculars, the planets appear as discs demonstrating finite size, and it is possible to observe orbiting moons which cast shadows onto the host planet's surface. Venus is the most prominent planet, often called the ""morning star"" or ""evening star"" because it is brighter than the stars and often the only ""star"" visible near sunrise or sunset, depending on its location in its orbit. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are also visible to the naked eye. Earth's Moon is a grey disc in the sky with cratering visible to the naked eye. It spans, depending on its exact location,"
"Sirius Sirius (, a latinisation of Greek , ""Seirios"", .""glowing"" or ""scorching"") is a binary star and the brightest point of light in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The system has the Bayer designation α (Alpha) Canis Majoris. The binary system consists of a main-sequence star of spectral type A0 or A1, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, designated Sirius B. The distance between the two varies between 8.2 and 31.5 astronomical units as they orbit"
"ISS is the brightest artificial object in the sky, excluding flares, with an approximate maximum magnitude of −4 when overhead (similar to Venus). The ISS, like many satellites including the Iridium constellation, can also produce flares of up to 8 or 16 times the brightness of Venus as sunlight glints off reflective surfaces. The ISS is also visible in broad daylight, albeit with a great deal more difficulty. Tools are provided by a number of websites such as Heavens-Above (see ""Live viewing"" below) as well as smartphone applications that use orbital data and the observer's longitude and latitude to indicate"
"Alpha Centauri in fiction As one of the brightest stars in Earth's night sky, and the closest-known star system to the Sun, the Alpha Centauri system plays an important role in many fictional works of literature, popular culture, television, and film. Alpha Centauri, a double star system with the binary designation Alpha Centauri AB, is the brightest visible object in the southern constellation Centaurus. Its component stars are Alpha Centauri A (the primary—somewhat larger and brighter than the Sun) and Alpha Centauri B (the secondary—slightly smaller and dimmer). These stars are of spectral classes G2V (as is the Sun) and"
"bright stars. These include Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris), the brightest star in the night sky, as well as three other stars above magnitude 2.0. Furthermore, two other stars are thought to have previously outshone all others in the night sky—Adhara (Epsilon Canis Majoris) shone at -3.99 around 4.7 million years ago, and Mirzam (Beta Canis Majoris) peaked at −3.65 around 4.42 million years ago. Another, NR Canis Majoris, will be brightest at magnitude −0.88 in about 2.87 million years' time. The German cartographer Johann Bayer used the Greek letters Alpha through Omicron to label the most prominent stars in the"
"chance that the Solar System could be ejected from the Milky Way or join the Andromeda Galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, even with some light pollution. Andromeda is best seen during autumn nights in the Northern Hemisphere, when from mid-latitudes the galaxy reaches zenith (its highest point at midnight) so can be seen almost all night. From the Southern Hemisphere, it is most visible at the same months, that is in spring, and away from our equator does not reach a high altitude over the northern horizon, making it difficult to"
"night sky. Aircraft are also visible at night, distinguishable at a distance from other objects because their lights blink. Night sky The term night sky, usually associated with astronomy from Earth, refers to the nighttime appearance of celestial objects like stars, planets, and the Moon, which are visible in a clear sky between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon. Natural light sources in a night sky include moonlight, starlight, and airglow, depending on location and timing. Aurorae light up the skies above the polar circles. Occasionally, a large coronal mass ejection from the Sun or simply"
"eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Under typical dark sky conditions Uranus (magnitude +5.8) can be seen as well with averted vision, as can the asteroid Vesta at its brighter oppositions. The Sun and the Moon—the remaining noticeable naked-eye objects of the solar system—are sometimes added to make seven ""planets."" During daylight only the Moon and Sun are obvious naked eye objects, but in many cases Venus can be spotted in daylight and in rarer cases Jupiter. Close to sunset and sunrise bright stars like Sirius or even Canopus can be spotted with the naked eye as long as"
"that is the second brightest star in the night sky at magnitude −0.72, 313 light-years from Earth. Alpha Carinae, as Canopus is formally designated, is a variable star that varies by approximately 0.1 magnitudes. Its traditional name comes from the mythological Canopus, who was a navigator for Menelaus, king of Sparta. There are several other stars above magnitude 3 in Carina. Beta Carinae, traditionally called Miaplacidus, is a blue-white hued star of magnitude 1.7, 111 light-years from Earth. Epsilon Carinae is an orange-hued giant star similarly bright to Miaplacidus at magnitude 1.9; it is 630 light-years from Earth. Another fairly"
"is Caloris Planitia (""hot basin""), appropriately named because an observer near its centre would see the Sun loop around the zenith once per Mercurian day, and hence experience a very hot day indeed. After the Sun, the second-brightest object in the Mercurian sky is Venus, which is much brighter there than for terrestrial observers. The reason for this is that when Venus is closest to Earth, it is between the Earth and the Sun, so we see only its night side. Indeed, even when Venus is brightest in the Earth's sky, we are actually seeing only a narrow crescent. For"
"Capella Capella, also designated Alpha Aurigae (α Aurigae, abbreviated Alpha Aur, α Aur), is the brightest point of light in the constellation of Auriga, the sixth-brightest in the night sky, and the third-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega. A prominent object in the winter sky of the northern hemisphere, it is circumpolar to observers north of 44°N. Its name meaning ""little goat"" in Latin, Capella depicted the goat Amalthea that suckled Zeus in classical mythology. The Capella system is relatively close, at only from the Sun. Although it appears to be a single star to the"
"Night sky The term night sky, usually associated with astronomy from Earth, refers to the nighttime appearance of celestial objects like stars, planets, and the Moon, which are visible in a clear sky between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon. Natural light sources in a night sky include moonlight, starlight, and airglow, depending on location and timing. Aurorae light up the skies above the polar circles. Occasionally, a large coronal mass ejection from the Sun or simply high levels of solar wind may extend the phenomenon toward the Equator. The night sky and studies of it"
"the naked eye on very clear nights, but, unlike the true naked-eye planets, are always less luminous than several thousands of stars, and as such, do not stand out enough for their existence to be noticed without the aid of a telescope. Classical planet In classical antiquity, the seven classical planets were the seven non-fixed astronomical objects in the sky visible to the naked eye: Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, the Sun, and the Moon. The word ""planet"" comes from two related Greek words, πλάνης ""planēs"" (whence πλάνητες ἀστέρες ""planētes asteres"" ""wandering stars, planets"") and πλανήτης ""planētēs"", both with the"
"more complex definition of absolute magnitude is used for planets and small Solar System bodies, based on its brightness at one astronomical unit from the observer and the Sun. The Sun has an apparent magnitude of −27 and Sirius, the brightest visible star in the night sky, −1.5. Apparent magnitudes can also be assigned to artificial objects in Earth orbit with the International Space Station (ISS) sometimes reaching a magnitude of −6. The magnitude system dates back roughly 2000 years to the Greek astronomer Hipparchus (or the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy—references vary) who classified stars by their apparent brightness, which they"
"Canopus Canopus (), also designated Alpha Carinae (α Carinae, abbreviated Alpha Car, α Car), is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina, and the second-brightest star in the night sky, after Sirius. Canopus's visual magnitude is −0.74, and it has an absolute magnitude of −5.71. Canopus is a bright giant of spectral type A9, so it is essentially white when seen with the naked eye. It is located in the far southern sky, at a year 2000 declination of and a right ascension of . Its name is generally considered to originate from the mythological Canopus, who was"
"Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a giant planet with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, but two-and-a-half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants; the other two giant planets, Uranus and Neptune, are ice giants. Jupiter has been known to astronomers since antiquity. It is named after the Roman god Jupiter. When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of −2.94, bright enough for its reflected light to cast shadows, and making it"
"but very prominent when viewed from rural areas when the Moon is below the horizon. Maps of artificial night sky brightness show that more than one-third of Earth's population cannot see the Milky Way from their homes due to light pollution. As viewed from Earth, the visible region of the Milky Way's galactic plane occupies an area of the sky that includes 30 constellations. The Galactic Center lies in the direction of Sagittarius, where the Milky Way is brightest. From Sagittarius, the hazy band of white light appears to pass around to the galactic anticenter in Auriga. The band then"
"distance of just , and is therefore one of Earth's nearest stellar neighbours. Procyon is the eighth-brightest point of light in the night sky, culminating at midnight on January 14. It forms one of the three vertices of the Winter Triangle asterism, in combination with Sirius and Betelgeuse. The prime period for evening viewing of Procyon is in late winter in the northern hemisphere. It has a color index of 0.42, and its hue has been described as having a faint yellow tinge to it. Procyon is a binary star system with a bright primary component, Procyon A, having an"
"possible investigations into the habitability and possible discovery of life on Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus. Saturn is the most distant of the five planets easily visible to the naked eye from Earth, the other four being Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. (Uranus and occasionally 4 Vesta are visible to the naked eye in dark skies.) Saturn appears to the naked eye in the night sky as a bright, yellowish point of light. The mean apparent magnitude of Saturn is 0.46 with a standard deviation of 0.34. Most of the magnitude variation is due to the inclination of the ring"
"the most luminous objects in the known universe. The brightest quasar in the sky is 3C 273 in the constellation of Virgo. It has an average apparent magnitude of 12.8 (bright enough to be seen through a medium-size amateur telescope), but it has an absolute magnitude of −26.7. From a distance of about 33 light-years, this object would shine in the sky about as brightly as our sun. This quasar's luminosity is, therefore, about 4 trillion (4 × 10) times that of the Sun, or about 100 times that of the total light of giant galaxies like the Milky Way."
"these elements in so-called Population II, heavy-element-poor, stars. The heavy elements could most plausibly have been produced by endothermic nuclear reactions during a supernova, or by transmutation through neutron absorption within a massive second-generation star. The Sun is by far the brightest object in the Earth's sky, with an apparent magnitude of −26.74. This is about 13 billion times brighter than the next brightest star, Sirius, which has an apparent magnitude of −1.46. The mean distance of the Sun's center to Earth's center is approximately , though the distance varies as Earth moves from perihelion in January to aphelion in"
"13 Canis Majoris—as Kappa and Kappa respectively, but subsequent cartographers such as Francis Baily and John Bevis dropped the fainter former star, leaving Kappa as the sole Kappa. Flamsteed's listing of Nu, Nu, Nu, Xi, Xi, Omicron and Omicron have all remained in use. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky at apparent magnitude −1.46 and one of the closest stars to Earth at a distance of 8.6 light-years. Its name comes from the Greek word for ""scorching"" or ""searing"". Sirius is also a binary star; its companion Sirius B is a white dwarf with a magnitude of"
"Achernar Achernar is the name of the primary (or 'A') component of the binary system designated Alpha Eridani (α Eridani, abbreviated Alpha Eri, α Eri), which is the brightest 'star' or point of light in, and lying at the southern tip of, the constellation of Eridanus, and the tenth-brightest in the night sky. The two components are designated Alpha Eridani A (the primary) and B (the secondary, also known informally as Achernar B). As determined by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite, it is approximately from the Sun. Of the ten apparent brightest stars in the night-time sky, Alpha Eridani is the"
"Procyon Procyon ( ), also designated Alpha Canis Minoris (α Canis Minoris, abbreviated Alpha CMi, α CMi), is the brightest point of light in the constellation of Canis Minor; to the naked eye, it appears to be a single star, the eighth-brightest in the night sky with a visual apparent magnitude of 0.34. It is a binary star system, consisting of a white main-sequence star of spectral type F5 IV–V, named Procyon A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DQZ, named Procyon B. As determined by the European Space Agency Hipparcos astrometry satellite, it lies at a"
"Regulus Regulus, also designated Alpha Leonis (α Leonis, abbreviated Alpha Leo, α Leo), is the brightest star in the constellation of Leo and one of the brightest stars in the night sky, lying approximately 79 light years from the Sun. Regulus is a multiple star system composed of four stars that are organized into two pairs. The spectroscopic binary Regulus A consists of a blue-white main-sequence star and its companion, which has not yet been directly observed, but is probably a white dwarf. Located farther away are Regulus B, C, and D, which are dim main-sequence stars. ""α Leonis"" (Latinized"