Dog Stars.

There was a bright light close to the eastern horizon tonight. At first I thought it was the nose light of a plane coming west out of East Midlands Airport, but after I’d stood there watching it for five minutes and it hadn’t come any closer, I realised it had to be a star.

Now, I knew it couldn’t be Venus because Venus is on an inner orbit and can, therefore, only appear in the east in the morning. (Getting the hang of this, aren’t I?) So what could it be, I wondered.

Aha! The penny dropped. I looked at Orion, looked back at the star, and realisation dawned: it had to be Sirius, the Dog Star. And on Sara’s dog’s birthday to boot.

So hello Sirius, welcome to my collection, and Happy Birthday Enya the dog. Neat.