Sirius

This star sits at the base of the neck of Canis Major, the Big Dog, which is why it is often known as the Dog Star. Its brightness actually throws off the whole scale by which stars are measured, because it's got an official magnitude rating of negative 1.6!

The Ancient or Forgotten ones in the short stories of H.P. Lovecraft came from Sirius in a giant migration.

The Dogon tribe near Timbuktu in Africa have strange stories concerning Sirius - that visitors from the binary star system (e.g. if the Sun were to have another star right next to it and earth revolved around it too) visited them. Still unexplained, the people of this remote tribe knew of Sirius's sister star - a white dwarf that was undected until the 1970s. The Dogon say their astronomical knowledge was given to them by the Nommos, amphibious beings sent to earth from Sirius for the benefit of mankind. The name comes from a Dogon word meaning "to make one drink," and the Nommos are also called Masters of the Water, the Monitors, and the Teachers.

It is also the title of a book by Olaf Stapledon, about a dog given human intelligence by a scientist who enlarges his brain capacity, while leaving his body and instincts largely unchanged. Ultimately it is more about human nature than speculation about altered dog biology, but Olaf Stapledon's fertile imagination provides much of the latter.

This novel takes place in the period of the World Wars. It is not meant as historical fiction, these were current and recent events when he wrote this novel. For modern readers however, there is an additional historical interest.

Lively human empathy and an intricate knowledge of the habits and work of the sheepdogs which Sirius was bred from make this a compelling novel. Passion and human interest are never far from center stage, although this is a very scientific and religious and philosophical novel.

(USNS Sirius) A supply ship in the United States Military Sealift Command bearing the hull number T-AFS 8. The Sirius was commissioned by the United Kingdom's Royal Fleet Auxiliary in 1964, as the RFA Lyness, one of three Ness-class dry stores underway replenishment ships. It, and its sister ships RFA Stromness and RFA Tarbatness were sold to the United States in 1981, and recommissioned as USNS Sirius, USNS Saturn and USNS Spica respectively. Via a quirk of timing, the Saturn ended up bearing the hull number T-AFS 10, while Spica was T-AFS 9, even though Tarbatness was built after Stromness.

The vessels, now referred to as either Lyness-class or Sirius-class depending on who you ask, are 524 feet long, 72 feet wide at their widest point, and displace 9010 tons empty. When fully loaded with fuel, personnel and cargo, displacement increases to over 16000 tons. They are powered by 8-cylinder Wallsend-Sulzer marine diesel engines providing 8.6 megawatts of power, allowing a maximum speed of 18 knots. The original British design included a flight deck for helicopter operations, but no hangar. The United States has since added hangars to all three ships, and they can carry either the CH-46D Sea Knight or MH-60S Knighthawk helicopters, operated by military pilots, or the Aerospatiale Puma operated by civilian pilots for vertical replenishment and SAR operations. The CH-46 and MH-60 are also capable of performing limited ship defense missions against small boats or gunmen on shore.

They have considerable connected replenishment capabilities, in keeping with their mission of fleet logistics. There are three tensioned-wire cargo rigs and two fuel receiving stations on the port side and two tensioned-wire rigs, two fuel receiving stations, one fueling rig and a cargo receiving station to starboard.

By default, the class carries no armament or armor, though there are provisions for 8 small weapons up to 20mm.

Sirius herself is homeported out of Norfolk, Virginia and operates in support of Atlantic fleet Navy and Coast Guard vessels, from light cutters through carriers and heavy amphibs. She has a crew of roughly 160, of which about 30 are active-duty US Navy personnel. The senior military officer aboard is a Supply Corps captain who is in charge of the military department. Sirius's commanding officer is a civilian, currently Captain Richard Cicchetti (as of 2003). On most deployments, a 30-man military AIRDET (Aviation detatchment) is embarked to operate the CH-46 or MH-60 helos.

Unlike most Navy ships, life onboard Sirius is actually fairly good for most sailors - instead of a 72"x24" coffin rack in a room with 90 others, enlisted sailors get a stateroom shared with one other. Senior enlisted (E-7+) and officers (including warrants) get solo rooms which are roughly double the size of a standard enlisted stateroom.

The Sirius is currently slated to be decommissioned in 2007, though this is tentative.

Sir"i*us (?), n. [L., fr. Gr. , properly, scorching.] Astron.

The Dog Star. See Dog Star.

© Webster 1913.