the star “Dune” orbited was Arrakis which is the old Arabic name for Nu Draconis

Actually make that Mu Draconis instead, sorry. Click on my name for a link to more info. via Kaler’s Stars website.

@ 42. ABR : “You may want to pull out your copy of Dune. The names “Dune” and “Arrakis” are synonymous and refer to the third planet of Canopus.”

I’m always happy to re-read that book &, yeah, that sounds like a good excuse to do so & check. Very belated but sincere thanks.

If so, however, that is somewhat of a pity though because Canopus is a most unsuitable candidate star for habitable planets – a short-lived white giant that would fry its worlds then go supernova before life can arise, perhaps before planets could even properly form. Arrakis (Mu Draconis), OTOH, is a more likely Real Life possibility, an F7 V main-sequence binary with a possible distant red dwarf member as well. Hotter and more luminous than our Sun but still relatively long-lived enough and the binary is distant enough for exoplanets to orbit stablely around either star too.

NB. I used to post here as ‘Stevo’ years ago before I finally settled on my current moniker.

You may want to pull out your copy of Dune. The names “Dune” and “Arrakis” are synonymous and refer to the third planet of Canopus.

On another note, I live in envy of you and all Southern Hemisphere citizens — I’ve never seen the Southern Cross or the Magellanic Clouds!

‘Seitch’ I think meant village as much as cavern in ‘Dune’ – tehfRemen were descendents froma ZenSunni (or was it Zen Sufi) diaspora which I take it means some sort of confluence / symbiosis of “Zen” (buddhist philosophy) and “Sunni” the mainstream version of Islam. An interesting fusion of religions. A lot of the terms used by “Fremen” (ie. ‘Free men’) were adopted I think from Arabic which make sense considering the environment.

Oh, & the star “Dune” orbited was Arrakis which is the old Arabic name for Nu Draconis, visible to you Northern hemisphere-ers as a circumpolar star (spectral type A I think ie like Sirius, Vega and Altair) near the north celstial pole (UrsaMinor -lil’ dipper & polaris) Which means, of course, that here in Adelaide, South Oz, I can’t see it. Still I’d take having the Southern Cross, Magellanic Clouds, the two best globular clusters and Eta Carinae
in my skies over Draco, Polaris and the two Bears (Ursa’s major & minor) anyday!

Hope that’s interesting / amusing /enlightening / fun for y’all..

Thanks for the pictures, and keep showing us more!

Astrogirl

*slinks away*

See his page here to read it:
http://rastosdeluz.astronomo-amador.com/?p=384

I only thought that ‘A Ler’ was trolling because it seems he was criticizing the BA for posting topics that are appearently don’t relate to “bad astronomy”.
Shows the difficulty of not having the guy write in english so we call can understand.
Also, one post he did looked as if he was being critical of the subject matter.

*sigh* I wish that ‘A Ler’ guy would quit trolling here.

In the empty quarter(the Rub AL Khali) of southeast Arabia, there are red dunes 800 feet tall and not a drop of rain has been recorded in the past century. I wonder if that could be a good starting point for researchers trying to determine if man can survive in the Martian equivelant? Of course, there are differences between these and those of MArs. For one, there’s good air and another it’s typically over 130 degress F. in the summer(measured at up to 134).

Gary 7

And jasonB…Kul wahad, indeed!

i cannot think of science right now, the is art through nature.

Jimi Hendrix had a song with the following lyrics:

Castles made of sand fall into the sea eventually….

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

You do know I was making a joke, referring to Frank Herbert’s novel, right?