Sirius

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Sirius, the first steamship, with the Great Western, to compete in establishing a regular mail and passenger route across the North Atlantic. She is also generally acknowledged to be the first steamship to cross the North Atlantic entirely under steam propulsion, though the Canadian steamship Royal William, which crossed in 1833, also has a claim to this distinction. But whereas the Sirius, unusually for her time, used fresh water in her boilers, and so could steam non-stop, the Royal William used salt water. This meant that every fourth day the salt water had to be drained and the boilers cleaned before the salt water was replaced. This took at least 24 hours, during which time the Royal William proceeded under sail.

The Sirius was a cross-Channel paddle steamer of 700 tons, 54 metres (178 ft) long, with an engine developing 320 horsepower. She was chartered by the British and American Steam Navigation Company in 1838 when it became apparent that their own ship, the British Queen, would not be delivered in time from the builder to make the first Atlantic crossing. She left Cork, in Ireland, on 4 April 1838 with 40 passengers aboard, and reached New York on 22 April with only 22 tons of fuel remaining and having burned some of her spars. Her passage took 18 days, 10 hours, and her average speed was 6–7 knots. The Great Western arrived in New York a few hours later, having left Bristol four days after the Sirius had departed from Cork. See also condenser; evaporators; ocean liners; savannah.

Sirius The star Alpha Canis Majoris, magnitude −1.44, the brightest star in the sky. It is popularly known as the Dog Star because it lies in the constellation Canis Major, the Greater Dog. It is an A1 dwarf and lies 8.6 l.y. away, making it the fifth-closest star to the Sun. Sirius has a white-dwarf companion, Sirius B, sometimes known as the Pup, which orbits it in a period of 50 years. Sirius B has an apparent magnitude of 8.4, and can be seen only with large telescopes when at its maximum separation from Sirius.

Sirius the brightest star in the sky, south of the celestial equator in the constellation Canis Major. It is a binary star with a dim companion, which is a white dwarf. Sirius is conspicuous in the winter sky of the northern hemisphere, apparently following on the heels of the hunter Orion, and is also known as the Dog Star. It was important to the ancient Egyptians, as its heliacal rising coincided with the season of flooding of the Nile.

Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris) Brightest star visible from Earth, in the northern constellation of Canis Major. Its luminosity is 23 times that of the Sun.

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