h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Zeta-tagged Stars - A87829122
Author: Galaxy Babe - eclectic editor - U128652

Hello, my name is Galaxy Babe and I am addicted to stars. My therapy continues...

GB

And no mention of Catherine Zeta Jones excellent and a good read well done.

it was tough to resist

Bob

GB

Thought it was best delt with quickly its out the way

It was amazing how many times she cropped up when I was searching for examples. I bet I boosted her Google-score somewhat!

Hi GB. I not sure that I get the point of listing a load of Zeta stars - it's almost as if you were trying to write an entry beginning with Z.

Seriously, we don't have articles about the Beta, the Gamma, the Delta stars; why pick out the Zetas?

You have zeta Scorpii1 and zeta Scorpii2. Shouldn't the numbers be after the zeta rather than after the constelation name? As in zeta1 Scorpii and zeta2 Scorpii.

Hi Gnomon
Thanks for reading and your review.

>>You have zeta Scorpii1 and zeta Scorpii2. Shouldn't the numbers be after the zeta rather than after the constelation name? As in zeta1 Scorpii and zeta2 Scorpii.<< Yes, you're correct, I've corrected those



>>why pick out the Zetas?<<
There are two reasons why I wrote this, my original research for one, (there's nothing else like this on the 'net) and zeta Ophiuchi which was featured at APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121229.html
I thought it was so gorgeous it deserved its own entry. However I couldn't find out more than a few paragraphs so I originally teamed it with zeta Reticuli which kind of took off in another direction and became an entry on its own. There wasn't another zeta star fascinating enough for me to team with zeta Ophiuchi so I decided to pick a bunch. There's 11 here, which is 1/8th of all the constellations, which I thought would appeal to the mathematicians of h2g2. I chose certain zeta stars, such as zeta Geminorium, to deliberately link to other h2g2 articles and I didn't need any excuses to make further use of your brilliant constellation diagrams.

And it was fun writing in connections so I could link to certain recent articles.

I hope readers enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it

GB

They do I am sure I have all the entries on stars very enjoyable and interesting.

Thank you Bob

I share Gnomon's concern. Although there's not a single thing wrong with the wording, I just don't see the point of collecting a list of the sixth-brightest members of star systems. I'm not sure it would even work if you collected information on the Alpha stars. Who would actually find this collation useful, and why?

This might work, however, in the wider context of an entry on the Greek letter Zeta. You'd need to balance it with a lot of non-astronomical Zeta's, though (like Catherine Zeta Jones, Riemann's Zeta function - you might struggle to find more)

to disagree, I think this is a most excellent Entry for the Guide. How can the Guide to the Galaxy have too many star Entries

I would like to see the 'etc' replaced with the missing letters Gamma, Delta, Epsilon I don't know, it's all Greek to me

I knew nothing about the Zeta stars before reading this and found it quite interesting. I am sure that many budding astronomers will find this most helpful. I found it particularly interesting that 'Zeta Puppis" is actually the brightest star in its present constellation.

Are there other letters assigned to even dimmer stars?

I would like to see Entries on each letter, but I see no reason why this can't be the first

F S

Well, it would be the same if I wrote the entry "Some 1970s pop songs which reached number 6 in the hit parade", to include a paragraph each on Elvis Presley - Just Can't Help Believing, Carole King - It's Too Late, Thin Lizzy - Whiskey in the Jar, etc.

It would be quirkily readable, but you might ask why I bothered researching it, and what the connection actually was between these songs.

Sounds like a great idea for an entry to me!

<BB<

Yes, but for how long? It's a novelty item. You or I could write that sort of stuff all day long and fill up the Edited Guide with it. There is no 'wisdom' in that kind of entry - it's just unlinked information - do you see?

Do all the entries need to be 'wise'? I see no harm with having a few quirky, novelty entries now and then as long as there is a balance.
But as h2g2 has articles on A3768933 British No1 Singles of the 1960s I don't see why you cannot have an entry on British No 6 Singles of the 1970s (although I would agree that an article on the hits that never got higher than number 2 might have more interest – which popular songs were kept off of the top spot, and by whom?)

<BB<

I quite agree. My view is that an entry on no 6 songs is quirky to the point of pointless. As it would be if that number was 3, 10 or even 42 (we've had more than enough novelty entries there).

I know less about stars that music, so I ask the question whether a zeta-themed star entry is of any use. My limited understanding is that it's a list of the sixth-brightest stars in each constellation, and I don't know whether astronomers would find that useful. Granted I've seen some far more pointless things in mathematical number theory (remember researcher Julzes?) but I can recognise the futility of those more readily.

They're not all the sixth-brightest stars of a particular constellation, I thought that would be interesting, not pointless

I was kind of hoping people would like this as it's quirky and unique and doesn't try to baffle with science. And it just goes to show all stars are different. I'm glad it appeals to some

GB

I was lead here from a meta-discussion about the practicality or lack thereof of this entry.


Yes, it is a completely arbitrary list. But it has a serendipitous charm. It's definitely the type of entry you would never find on Wikpedia.


Oh, I would suggest adding just one little thing, maybe as a footnote.


Which of the stars in this arbitrary list of zetas is the sixth brightest? The zeta of these zetas?

Thanks Baron Grim. According to my calculations it is Homam, zeta Pegasi/42 Pegasi, at +3.4 mag. I should have guessed I've changed the ending of the section to read:

Besides its zeta tag by Bayer, Homam bears a Flamsteed designation of 42 Pegasi and it happens to be the 'zeta of the zetas' - that is, it's the 6th-brightest of the 11 stars in this Entry.

GB