Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat Kennedy
I worked on her in Cammell Lairds Bob.
I was driver of the fifty ton crane at No 1 drydock when Algol was brought round from the basin for some work on the rudder. Funny thing, I was reading some book or other at the time which informed me that "Algol" was the name of a star, and it was Arabic for "Demon Star". Consequently I took a totally irrational dislike to this ship!
Regards,
Pat  |
Well Pat/Shelter I'm something of an astronomy/cosmology nerd and yes, you're quite right, Algol was known as the 'Demon Star.' However, the reason for this is that Algol appeared to 'wink' in the night sky, which back in the day, meant the best interpretation is that this was something evil.
Science however discovered that Algol is what is known as an eclipsing binary. Two stars rotating around each other, one much brighter than the other. Hence as one eclipses the other, the magnitude of the star dips quite appreciably than rises up again with a period of about 3 days. In fact there are three stars in this system, but the third tries to stay well out of it ...
So, no demon, a far more fantastic explanation given. If there are planets, they could have three suns !!! (That'd make building a Stonehenge seriously bloody complicated.)
Algol pretty much became the defining star of its class.
Of course, if it turns out some demon like aliens come from the Algol system and give us all a hard time, particularly looking at your stories ... don't come looking for me, I'll be deep in my alcoholic bunker ....
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