Yemeni Star
I give up.
I am throwing myself on your mercy.
A week ago, Adventure Man heard a morning radio show on 99.7, “Superstation”, in which a meteorologist at the Kuwait Airport mentioned a particular star, which when it appears above the horizon in Kuwait, the ancient inhabitants would know that cooler temperatures were on the way.
Adventure Man is sure he called it The Yemeni Star, because it appeared over the horizon in the general direction of Yemen.
I’ve google’d it to death and can’t find anything. I called in the superstar Googler, Little Diamond and even she had to admit defeat.
Kuwaiti friends and bloggers – please, ask your elders if they know of the Yemeni Star. I think the weatherman said it was the nomadic peoples who would watch for it. I am guessing that in Kuwait, there are few nomads left, but a great number of descendants of nomadic peoples. Or, if you have an astronomer, or weather person in your family, could you ask them?
I don’t know why it matters to me, but it does.
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It’s simply the north star. 😛
http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1079&p=lastpage&a=2
Just for the records ” FM 99.7 Sucks ” ..
If its of any help ‘Tarsheed’ should shut down 99.7 and 92.5 , a lot of electricity is being wasted playing “very Bad Music ” ..
Someone mistook the brightest vs the second brightest stars in the night sky: the star locally used to for seasonal determination is Canopus or Suhail as it is called to locally and it is the second brightest star:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canopus
The brightest star is Sirius:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius
In Arabic Sirius is called Al-Shuoraa Al-Yamaneya.
lol, you and adventure man are sure into a lot of stuff.. the star is called suhail, is-hail, and might also be spelled in a variety of other ways. in arabic it’s سهيل. Can’t wait for winter im sick of summer already
1st google result: http://domeofthesky.com/clicks/suhail.html !
Oh WOW! I read all the articles. IF you know that the “yemeni star” is Suhail, you get all kinds of results. If you don’t, what you get is Yemeni rock stars and some PhD candidates writing on ancient astrology, but nothing definitive.
Oh! This is WAAAYYYYY cool. Thank you, thank you.
Grey: here is one sentence from the Yemani Times article you cited:
Arab historian Ibrahim AL-Jarwan, who is an astrologist in UAE said that Arabs used to become optimistic once the Yemani star is visible because it means the weather will become better as temperature will decrease and the rain will pour down promising a good harvest. Arabs also believed that when this star shines divers will be lucky to find more and better pearls. The star is usually seen between 15 and 28 August
UzF – yes, we are into a lot of stuff, and something like this can drive us crazy until good people like you help us out. 🙂
From UzF’s notation, Dome of the Sky:
“Suhail” in Arabic means “handsome, brilliant, glorious, and beautiful.” This was a term that was commonly applied to a bright star.
The name of this star is probably a shortening of Al Suhail al Wazn, that is, “The Bright Star of the Weight.” Another name for this star is simply Alsuhail.
Thank you, q80-demon, and can you tell me what Al-Shuoraa Al-Yamaneya translates to literally? I can understand how the two could be confused, when Sirius also has something in it’s name indicating Yemen.
Did you see this reference in the Wikipedia article on Canopus?
In Frank Herbert’s Dune universe, the planet Arrakis is the third planet orbiting Canopus
You are a star my dear and enjoy other stars! That’s why it matters for you! 😉
Noracassandra, you made my day. Thank you!
When I was a little girl, living in Alaska, I could lie out and look at the stars and they seemed so close I could touch them. It’s been a lifelong passion for me.
[…] of you have asked about why it even matters to me what the Yemeni Star is all about. So I am going to tell you a secret from my childhood, a secret that got me through […]
Yemeni Star is Sirius according to the Koran (The Stars, 49). People predict weather according to its position at night or in the morning!
Thank you, Turkish! I did not know there was a section of the Koran called The Stars. Now I have some reading to do!