The New Student's Reference Work/Dog-Star

Dog-Star or Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, belongs to the constellation of the Great Dog.  Its light is estimated at six times as great as that of Vega or Arcturus.  In ancient times it was described as of a reddish color, but its light now is white.  The spectroscope shows that it is traveling away from us at a rapid rate and that its temperature is probably very much higher than that of our sun.  From photometric measurements it appears that the light emitted by Sirius is probably 40 times as great as that emitted by our sun.  For an interesting account of the color of Sirius see three articles by Professor See in Astronomy and Astrophysics for 1892.

It was discovered by Alvan G. Clark that Sirius is a double star having a very faint and close companion.