aka: The Dog Star.
The brightest star in the sky, so it gets a lot of attention.
The name “Sirius” is derived from the Ancient Greek: Σείριος Seirios (“glowing” or “scorcher”).
Sirius is also known colloquially as the “Dog Star”, reflecting its prominence in its constellation, Canis Major (Greater Dog). The heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the “dog days” of summer for the ancient Greeks. For the Polynesians, it marked winter and was an important star for navigation around the Pacific Ocean.
Sirius was commonly thought to cause madness in 18th century England.
Sirius was the name of the flagship in the first fleet of ships that brought Europeans to Australia, landing in present-day Sydney Harbour on January 26th, 1788.
In 1844, Sirius was found to be a binary system. In 1915, astronomers at the Mount Wilson Observatory discovered that Sirius B is a white dwarf — the first ever discovered.
Sirius is the home star system of the reptoid alien visitors in the television series V.
Robert Anton Wilson talks about Sirius.
The tribal Dogon people in Africa are said to have known that Sirius had a companion star before its discovery in the 19th century. They may have learned this from traveling astronomers. Or there may have been other sources.
References
- wiki: sirius