Is Rukbat (Perns sun) a real star?
In the introduction to the Dragonriders of Pern books, Pern’s Sun is identified as ‘Rukbat’; a star in the constellation Saggitarius. Therein, it is described as a G-type (i.e. similar to Sol) star. In a number of interviews, Ms. McCaffrey has explained that she saw the star name in a copy of National Geographic and decided to use it. Rick Hewett (rick@chocky.demon.co.uk) did a little research and came up with the following: — >From Sky Catalogue 2000.0 Vol. 1 (ed: Alan Hirshfeld & Roger W. Sinnot >Pub: Cambridge University Press $ Sky Publishing Corporation >ISBN 0-521-28913-0 pbk, 0-521-24710-1 hbd) > >Rukbat (alpha Sagittarius) HD 181869 SAO 229659 > > R.A. 19 23 53.0 > Dec -40 36 58 > > Visual magnitude 3.97 > Colour index (B-V) -0.10 Somewhat on the blue side … > Absolute magnitude (Mv) -0.2 > Spectral class B8 V (Yes I do mean bee eight) > distance in parsecs 36 (maximum estimated) — To which, Peter Stewart (stewart@nutcake.bae.bellcore.com) adds the following commentary: –
