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Food for Thought

So, what would the sky look like if Arcturus, Sirius, Alpha Centauri, Vega or Polaris replaced our Sun?

If Arcturus were put in place of the Sun it might look something like this at sunset, which would last over 50 minutes to set, cause it’s, you know, some 25 times larger than our Sun.

White-hot Sirius A would blaze in our daytime sky. 1.75 times the size of the #Sun and 26 times as luminous, we’d all be fried if Sirius stood where the Sun is.

This is AlphaCentauri , comprised of three stars, two stars slightly more massive and luminous than the Sun located roughly, 4.4 light years away. The third star (to the left) is Proxima Centauri, a dim red dwarf and third member of the system.

The star Vega—25 light years from Earth—rotates so rapidly it’s oval shaped instead of spherical. Vega measures 2.7 times the Sun’s diameter along its equator and is 36 times brighter than the Sun. The sight would make you go blind quickly. Earth would also be roasted in the heat.

Polaris, also known as the North Star is a supergiant 2,500 more luminous than the Sun and 45 times its size. What an eyeful we Earthlings would have if Polaris were our sun. Wouldn’t have eyes to enjoy it though. Rigel, the left foot of the constellation Orion, would provide a similar view. with the same results. In order for Rigel to provide a planet the same degree of light and heat as we receive on Earth, the planet would need an orbit so large it would take 2000 years to complete one revolution around the star.

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Soldering is Not My Strong Suit

Almost all of the audio gear I’ve bought off eBay over the past few years was stuff that was originally sold elsewhere than the US. That being said, they came with built-in multi-voltage selectors and those funky European plugs. Yes, they also came with US adapters, but I think those are fugly.

I could just have cut the ends off and wire and screwed on some US plugs, but those things are even uglier than the adapters. So I bit the bullet and bought power cords with the proper plugs molded onto the ends and popped the covers on my gear thinking it would be a relatively easy matter of replacing the cords.

Maybe if I did electronic repair for a living and had the necessary skill set, but I do not. Yes, I safely completed the task (nothing sparked or smoked when I powered everything back on and they still work) on the three pieces of equipment that I swapped the cords on, but after doing this I honestly think the soldering process is 50% skill and 50% black magic voodoo. Not to mention you need three hands. I mean, it looks so easy when someone else is doing it…