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THE SKY GUIDE CHALLENGE
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
|February 2023
Can you beat Sirius's glare to identify its faint companion the Pup Star?
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Sirius is the brightest nighttime star, shining at mag. -1.5, a beacon in the UK's winter sky. Its brightness makes it easy to find, but if you need assistance, simply follow the line of Orion's Belt down and left (southeast), a direction that points directly to Sirius. At 8.6 lightyears distance, Sirius is one of the Sun's nearest neighbours. It has a white dwarf companion and this month's challenge is to try to see or image this.
This story is from the February 2023 edition of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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