Introducing 55 Cancri

 I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to adopt a star. Have my own favourite ball of burning gas out there in the cosmos. 

I spent a few hours that day looking at some stars that best fit the requirements I outlined in that article. I was surprised to learn how many really common stars have exoplanets. Like there are planets EVERYWHERE. They're not rare.

The best tool I found was a website called The Planet Project. It's a comfortingly retro internet website with yellow and cyan text linked to pages with bright blue backgrounds. Just like momma used to make. 

I sorted through the stars listed there, excluding the ones from the southern hemisphere and the ones that are maybe a bit more common. 

I ended up landing on 55 Cancri, a star in the constellation Cancer. Since my start sign is Cancer, it felt fitting. Plus, it was one of two or three in the list that had full planetary systems, not just a single big Jupiter that is basically a throw-off from when the star was made. 55 Cancri has 5 planets known to date AND is part of a double star system with a red dwarf they've cheekily named 55 Cancri B. 

Now, there is a lot already known about 55 Cancri, or as I'll be calling it, Fiddy-fi Can. It's got a pretty robust Wikipedia page, and there are quite a few interesting things about it already. For example, a radio signal was sent to the start system in 2003. But that means I can throw a party in 2044 when the signal gets there - just to observe the day our signal arrives. 

There have been lots of different kinds of observations so far, and it's a pretty bright star, so assembling information should be a fun challenge. I have not yet had the opportunity to go look for the star, so here is my initial artist rendition:

So what next? Well, I want to read more about it, get my head around it all. Gotta memorize the names of the planets, of course. I'm on the back stretch of my February Album Writing month challenge, and there have been a few people writing songs about planets and things. I'm gonna show them all by writing a song for 55 Cancri -and it's little family of planets, and its partner nearby. 

I'm also excited to have something to focus on at the Saskatchewan Star Party this summer. Maybe get some good photos. Use Dad's telescope to see 55 Cancri B. 

And I suppose I should make a sub-blog or something to collect all the stuff I find about the star together. 

Should be fun. Please welcome my new favourite star, 55 Cancri! 

I want to adopt a star

I've had this idea for a few years that I would like to adopt a star.  This will be my "favourite star," and I will keep maybe a journal, a blog or something. Some kind of collection of all the information and facts about this particular star. 

But there are a few elements of it that I haven't been able to settle on just yet. So I haven't picked a favourite. I think the initial instinct is to go with maybe one of the more well-known stars, like Betelgeuse or Polaris. Maybe you'd go down the popularity/luminosity list to a Pollux, Deneb or Omicron Persei. 

But I feel there are already large collections about stars like that. There are whole YouTube videos on them. I need to go a bit smaller. The kind that doesn't have a proper name yet. Named something like NCCD22234_a*.

That's not to say I want a star that's invisible to me. It doesn't need to be the third star from the left of the Andromeda galaxy, and I'll never get a good look at it in my lifetime. Something that I can still see with my naked eye, but really, maybe only when I'm out in a really dark area. I have terrible eyesight, so it needs to be visible and easy to locate. Binoculars are a consideration. 

I would go back to one of those more common stars I wrote about earlier. Use it as an anchor star to find my favourite. Something that I can see year-round is best, but I'd be ok with just in the summer. February stars need not apply. 

I think a star system would be cool to follow because there are actual changes visible. Double (or more) interacting stars would actually be cool. I think it increases the chance you get to see something happening. Exoplanets are a plus, habitable ones are better. 

Appearance in fiction would also be a bonus if that's possible. I've eyeballed Deneb for appearing in Star Trek and Omicron Persei because of Futurama. Maybe there's some start that appears in a weird space opera rag. Or maybe Navigator just starts writing a fiction around it for me. 

I know that data folks could just slam all of these links and criteria into a number machine and it would spit out an answer - or a list of answers. But I suppose I hope to find it a bit more organically. But in preparing this blog post, I think I've come much closer to an answer. 

The family has been ordered out to the star party this summer, so I've set myself a deadline to have the star picked by then. Or at least a Top 5 or 10, or whatever, and use the time there to lock it in. Toss any suggestions you have into the comments. Especially around fiction or an exoplanet story.