Castor star system

[jesusfreak16]

Anybody want to discuss the Castor star system.This is one of my most favorite objects in space.The star is actually a triple star,and each of those 3 is a double star.So in other words,it's a sextuple star.

I have a feeling that this explanation was unneccesary for some of you experienced guys

[rigelan]

I'd never heard that really, Are they all visible to the naked eye?

[BMAONE23]

Castor is a multiple star system in Gemini with six components, three of which you can see in this image. The pair at the top of the image are the A and B components; each has a spectroscopic companion. The star at the bottom is component C. There is also one other star, D, which is part of the system, further away and not shown here.

[apodman]

Are they all visible to the naked eye?

Individually, no.

Double star Castor A, at magnitude 1.9, would be visible to the naked eye if it were alone.

Double star Castor B, at magnitude 2.9, would also be visible to the naked eye if it were alone.

You can't separate pair Castor A from pair Castor B with the naked eye because they are too close to each other, but a small telescope will separate them. How large a telescope you need I don't know; they are close and bright.

Double star Castor C, at magnitude 9, is not visible to the naked eye.

I don't know the magnitudes of the two components of Castor A, but I'm betting either is bright enough (certainly one is) to see with the naked eye if it were alone. But they are way too close to separate with the naked eye or most instruments. Same on all counts for the two components of Castor B.

See ... http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/castor.html

See ... http://www.solstation.com/stars2/castor6.htm

There is also one other star, D, which is part of the system, further away and not shown here.

I see they talk about component D at http://hou.lbl.gov/~vhoette/Explorations/BinaryStars/ but I haven't found a reference to it anywhere else.

[bystander]

Castor and Pollux are the twin stars of Gemini. Pollux is interesting, also. It is known to have a Jupiter class planet.

Art, you want to give us some Roman mythology? Brothers to Helen of Troy? Argonauts?

APOD: 2008 May 10 - Stars and Mars

[jesusfreak16]

is sextuple even a word?
(I guess now is a good time for me to ask) not.

[BMAONE23]

For the numbers geeks with nothing else to do

1 Single
2 Double
3 Triple
4 Quadruple
5 Quintuple/Pentuple
6 Sextuple/Hextuple
7 Septuple
8 Octuple
9 Nonuple
10 Decuple
11 Hendecuple/Undecuple
12 Duodecuple
13 Tredecuple
14 Quattuordecuple
15 Quindecuple
16 Sexdecuple
17 Septendecuple
18 Octodecuple
19 Novemdecuple
20 Viguple
21 Unviguple
22 Duoviguple
23 Treviguple
24 Quattuorviguple
25 Quinviguple
26 Sexviguple
27 Septenviguple
28 Octoviguple
29 Novemviguple
30 Triguple
31 Untriguple
32 Duotriguple
33 Tretriguple
34 Quattuortriguple
35 Quintriguple
36 Sextriguple
37 Septentriguple
38 Octotriguple
39 Novemtriguple
40 Quadraguple
41 Unquadraguple
42 Duoquadraguple
43 Trequadraguple
44 Quattuorquadraguple
45 Quinquadraguple
46 Sexquadraguple
47 Septenquadraguple
48 Octoquadraguple
49 Novemquadraguple
50 Quinquaguple
51 Unquinquaguple
52 Duoquinquaguple
53 Trequinquaguple
54 Quattuorquinquaguple
55 Quinquinquaguple
56 Sexquinquaguple
57 Septenquinquaguple
58 Octoquinquaguple
59 Novemquinquaguple
60 Sexaguple
61 Unsexaguple
62 Duosexaguple
63 Tresexaguple
64 Quattuorsexaguple
65 Quinsexaguple
66 Sexsexaguple
67 Septensexaguple
68 Octosexaguple
69 Novemsexaguple
70 Septuaguple
71 Unseptuaguple
72 Duoseptuaguple
73 Treseptuaguple
74 Quattuorseptuaguple
75 Quinseptuaguple
76 Sexseptuaguple
77 Septenseptuaguple
78 Octoseptuaguple
79 Novemseptuaguple
80 Octoguple
81 Unoctoguple
82 Duooctoguple
83 Treoctoguple
84 Quattuoroctoguple
85 Quinoctoguple
86 Sexoctoguple
87 Septoctoguple
88 Octooctoguple
89 Novemoctoguple
90 Nonaguple
91 Unnonaguple
92 Duononaguple
93 Trenonaguple
94 Quattuornonaguple
95 Quinnonaguple
96 Sexnonaguple
97 Septennonaguple
98 Octononaguple
99 Novemnonaguple
100 Centuple
1000 Millidruple
million Megadruple
billion Gigadruple
trillion Teradruple

[jesusfreak16]

Great.
I fried my brain trying to read that
(I lost you at octuple)

[apodman]

For the numbers geeks with nothing else to do ...
14 Quattuordecuple ...
26 Sexviguple ...
32 Duotriguple ...
62 Duosexaguple ...

I am not a numbers geek. I am a well-rounded Renaissance geek.

We all know the five regular solids (tetrahedron, hexahedron (cube), octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron with 4, 6, 8, 12, and 20 faces respectively) which are all named in ancient Greek (are the prefixes above Latin?) for their number of faces.

Some people get a kick out of constructing ungainly words with Greek prefixes for polyhedra of greater numbers of faces, but I don't. It turns out that there are four equilateral but not regular polyhedra with mixed regular faces that need naming.

Six squares plus eight triangles make a 14-hedron. Eighteen squares plus eight triangles make a 26-hedron. Twelve pentagons plus 20 triangles make a 32-hedron. Twelve pentagons, 20 triangles, and 30 squares make a 62-hedron.

Ancient Greek prefixes for 14, 26, 32, and 62 are not for me, so I turned to the periodic table and named the polyhedra "Silihedron", "Ferrohedron", "Geohedron", and "Samahedron" after the elements with those atomic numbers. A lot easier to remember than gobbledygook.

http://j3000.com/geometry/polyhedrons2.htm

I really must have had nothing else to do when I built those models. If you totally have nothing else to do, http://etchy.org/ may have something for you. Or make 14-, 26-, 32-, and 62-hedrons with regular hexagons instead of triangles and send me a picture. (No, a picture of a soccer ball as your 32-hedron with hexagons doesn't count.)

P.S. I find nothing wrong with Greek per se. I memorized the Greek alphabet at a ridiculously young age (for a non-Greek) from an inset in my first star chart. Deft Greek letter penmanship on homework and exams makes you look practiced in things scientific, mathematical, and technical, and can get you the benefit of the doubt from some easily influenced instructors. (These are not the droids you're looking for.)

[jesusfreak16]

These aren't the droids we're looking for

[apodman]

Guess what "Castor" means in both Greek and Latin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver

Yes, "Castor" means "Beaver" in Greek and Latin.

Note that "castor oil" is made from the castor bean. The oil that comes from glands in the groin of a beaver is just called "castor".

[jesusfreak16]

I wonder if the twins were actually supposed to be beavers if that's what Castor means (just kidding)

[helpz]

For the numbers geeks with nothing else to do

1 Single
2 Double
3 Triple
4 Quadruple
5 Quintuple/Pentuple
6 Sextuple/Hextuple
7 Septuple
8 Octuple
9 Nonuple
10 Decuple
11 Hendecuple/Undecuple
12 Duodecuple
13 Tredecuple
14 Quattuordecuple
15 Quindecuple
16 Sexdecuple
17 Septendecuple
18 Octodecuple
19 Novemdecuple
20 Viguple
21 Unviguple
22 Duoviguple
23 Treviguple
24 Quattuorviguple
25 Quinviguple
26 Sexviguple
27 Septenviguple
28 Octoviguple
29 Novemviguple
30 Triguple
31 Untriguple
32 Duotriguple
33 Tretriguple
34 Quattuortriguple
35 Quintriguple
36 Sextriguple
37 Septentriguple
38 Octotriguple
39 Novemtriguple
40 Quadraguple
41 Unquadraguple
42 Duoquadraguple
43 Trequadraguple
44 Quattuorquadraguple
45 Quinquadraguple
46 Sexquadraguple
47 Septenquadraguple
48 Octoquadraguple
49 Novemquadraguple
50 Quinquaguple
51 Unquinquaguple
52 Duoquinquaguple
53 Trequinquaguple
54 Quattuorquinquaguple
55 Quinquinquaguple
56 Sexquinquaguple
57 Septenquinquaguple
58 Octoquinquaguple
59 Novemquinquaguple
60 Sexaguple
61 Unsexaguple
62 Duosexaguple
63 Tresexaguple
64 Quattuorsexaguple
65 Quinsexaguple
66 Sexsexaguple
67 Septensexaguple
68 Octosexaguple
69 Novemsexaguple
70 Septuaguple
71 Unseptuaguple
72 Duoseptuaguple
73 Treseptuaguple
74 Quattuorseptuaguple
75 Quinseptuaguple
76 Sexseptuaguple
77 Septenseptuaguple
78 Octoseptuaguple
79 Novemseptuaguple
80 Octoguple
81 Unoctoguple
82 Duooctoguple
83 Treoctoguple
84 Quattuoroctoguple
85 Quinoctoguple
86 Sexoctoguple
87 Septoctoguple
88 Octooctoguple
89 Novemoctoguple
90 Nonaguple
91 Unnonaguple
92 Duononaguple
93 Trenonaguple
94 Quattuornonaguple
95 Quinnonaguple
96 Sexnonaguple
97 Septennonaguple
98 Octononaguple
99 Novemnonaguple
100 Centuple
1000 Millidruple
million Megadruple
billion Gigadruple
trillion Teradruple

what would one hundred one be?

[Ann]

Pollux and Castor were brothers, possibly twins, but Castor was apparently a whole retinue of six all on his own! That's complicated.



Two plus two Castors, too close together to be told apart better than this. The two red little runts are invisible here.

Ann

[Guest]

For the numbers geeks with nothing else to do

1 Single
2 Double
3 Triple
4 Quadruple
5 Quintuple/Pentuple
6 Sextuple/Hextuple
7 Septuple
8 Octuple
9 Nonuple
10 Decuple
11 Hendecuple/Undecuple
12 Duodecuple
13 Tredecuple
14 Quattuordecuple
15 Quindecuple
16 Sexdecuple
17 Septendecuple
18 Octodecuple
19 Novemdecuple
20 Viguple
21 Unviguple
22 Duoviguple
23 Treviguple
24 Quattuorviguple
25 Quinviguple
26 Sexviguple
27 Septenviguple
28 Octoviguple
29 Novemviguple
30 Triguple
31 Untriguple
32 Duotriguple
33 Tretriguple
34 Quattuortriguple
35 Quintriguple
36 Sextriguple
37 Septentriguple
38 Octotriguple
39 Novemtriguple
40 Quadraguple
41 Unquadraguple
42 Duoquadraguple
43 Trequadraguple
44 Quattuorquadraguple
45 Quinquadraguple
46 Sexquadraguple
47 Septenquadraguple
48 Octoquadraguple
49 Novemquadraguple
50 Quinquaguple
51 Unquinquaguple
52 Duoquinquaguple
53 Trequinquaguple
54 Quattuorquinquaguple
55 Quinquinquaguple
56 Sexquinquaguple
57 Septenquinquaguple
58 Octoquinquaguple
59 Novemquinquaguple
60 Sexaguple
61 Unsexaguple
62 Duosexaguple
63 Tresexaguple
64 Quattuorsexaguple
65 Quinsexaguple
66 Sexsexaguple
67 Septensexaguple
68 Octosexaguple
69 Novemsexaguple
70 Septuaguple
71 Unseptuaguple
72 Duoseptuaguple
73 Treseptuaguple
74 Quattuorseptuaguple
75 Quinseptuaguple
76 Sexseptuaguple
77 Septenseptuaguple
78 Octoseptuaguple
79 Novemseptuaguple
80 Octoguple
81 Unoctoguple
82 Duooctoguple
83 Treoctoguple
84 Quattuoroctoguple
85 Quinoctoguple
86 Sexoctoguple
87 Septoctoguple
88 Octooctoguple
89 Novemoctoguple
90 Nonaguple
91 Unnonaguple
92 Duononaguple
93 Trenonaguple
94 Quattuornonaguple
95 Quinnonaguple
96 Sexnonaguple
97 Septennonaguple
98 Octononaguple
99 Novemnonaguple
100 Centuple
1000 Millidruple
million Megadruple
billion Gigadruple
trillion Teradruple

what would one hundred one be?

bicentuple.

[Beyond]

GADZOOKS!! THIS Thread is really Greek to me But by the explanation of Castor oil, i now know why there is a shortage of Beavers

[neufer]

"Castor" means "Beaver" in Greek and Latin.

Note that "castor oil" is made from the castor bean.
The oil that comes from glands in the groin of a beaver is just called "castor".

http://www.billcasselman.com/cwod_archi ... or_two.htm

Castoroides Ohioensis

---

The Complex Case of Castor’s Etymology

<<Our North American beaver is Castor canadensis. There is only one other species extant, the European beaver, Castor fiber. But 10,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene era in what would become Canada there was the humungous Castoroides ohioensis, a giant beaver the size of a bear. Luckily for our ancestors the giant beaver was a herbivore and chomped trees not hunter-gatherers.

Latin borrowed castor ‘beaver’ from Greek kastor ‘beaver.’ Yes, it’s the same word as the name of the twins up in the constellation, Castor and Pollux. Those who pronounce on the subject of Greek etymology— admittedly a small, eccentric tribe—have offered some mighty strange origins of Kastor's name. I don't buy their tangled notions of linguistically improbable mutations, nor shall I stoop to quote them. It is sufficient to state that in some ancient Greek ritual or myth, now lost to us, Kastor changed into a beaver and back again. I don't think such an audacious meta-morphosis required a trip to a Swedish gender clinic. There are, after all, references in Greek mythology to such anthropocastoric transformations. Nemesis, for example, changed into a beaver or otter once, in order to better pursue fish. Does the beaver eat fish? No. But you will find in the information below just how deeply ignorant of the beaver's life cycle and habits most of Europe remained for thousands of years.

Nevertheless, if you wish to pursue the more byzantine crannies and anfractuosities of Castor's putative etymology, I draw your attention to the works of Monsieur Boisacq and Mr. Keightley. What they present is manic dictionary riffling, not etymology based on evidence. The origin in the next paragraph is evidence, not blather.

Castor & Pollux

There is one compelling suggested origin of the Greek word for beaver, kastor. It appears to be cognate with a Sanskrit word for musk, kasturi. We know that at some early time in their history Indo-European peoples began to kill beavers and made some kind of odorous extract from two glands in the beaver’s groin. These glands which both sexes possess, are scent glands that secrete a sexual attractant. Once they were supposed to contain an oil with which the beaver would preen its fur in order to keep it waterproof. Whatever use the rodent made of it, Europeans called this beaver extract castoreum.

Castoreum & Castor Oil

This extract and this word were known to the ancient Greeks too, for the source of the Latin castoreum is a word found, among other works, in the first-century Greek writings of Plutarch, kastoreion ‘beaver secretion used in medicine.’ Castoreum was used as an aphrodisiac and also as a specific against impotence and constipation, both probably considered blockages of the humours by ancient physicians. In medieval pharmacopias and even today in dubious healthfood catalogues, quacks claim castoreum helps quell epileptic attacks.

Although castoreum stuck around until modern times, in the 18th century a replacement called castor oil became popular. We even know the date of castoreum's decline. A certain Doctor Peter Cavane of Bath publish-ed a 1764 study of castor oil entitled Dissertation on the Oleum Palmae Christi. Castor oil shot to the top of the British pharmacy hit parade immediately. This syropy plant oil was a much better purgative than castoreum, although castor oil's atomic-blast cathartic effect would not find much approval among today's family doctors, one hopes.

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 75#p116828

The name castor oil was merely an attempt to remind patients of castoreum. Other than its phoney name, castor oil had nothing to do with beavers. It is an oil expressed from the seeds of a nasty plant called Ricinus. One of the ancient names for this poisonous horror of a plant, still found in gardens all over the world near young children and little family pets was Palmae Christi ‘palms of Christ’ referring to its giant reddish leaves which appear to hang on the plant like the open palms of Christ. What a blasphemous name for a toxic plant! Castor oil is not toxic but from the same plant comes ricin, a poison that can be fatal. I have never allowed castor oil in my medicine cabinet. And, no, I don't need a chemistry lesson telling me that castor oil is safe. The Egyptians used castor oil in lamps. The Greeks rubbed it on their skin as an emollient.

In the 20th century, castoreum, the extract from beaver scent glands, was still being used in expensive perfume-making. Today it has been duplicated by chemical synthesis. Synthetic castoreum is an ingredient in the following well-known perfumes, according to their manufacturers. Shalimar by Guerlain, Emeraude by Coty, Magie Noire by Lancôme, Givenchy III by Hubert de Givenchy: all these perfumes contain synthetic castoreum. Before that, for hundreds of years, castoreum was part of the European materia medica and a jar of castoreum extract could be found on the shelves of most contin-ental pharmacies throughout the 19th century.

But more than 2,000 years ago, confusion arose about where exactly one found this extract. Many ancient commentators thought this “musk” was derived from the beaver’s testicles. They seem to have confused the excised scent glands with excised testicles. In Aesop’s Fables, begun in the sixth century BCE in Greece, we already find the silly but common hunter’s fallacy that a cornered beaver would bite off its own testicles and scamper away. Here is the gist of Aesop: “The beaver, a four-footed animal that lives in pools, knows that he is hunted for his testicles, which are used to cure ailments. When pursued, the beaver runs for some distance, but when he sees he cannot escape, he will bite off his own testicles and throw them to the hunter, and thus escape death.” Yeah, right. No mammal as yet seen on earth scampers away after losing its testicles.

A Latin verb added greatly to this myth and helped it endure in its silliness all through medieval times, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and well into Victorian England. And that misleading verb was castrare ‘to castrate, to remove the testicles.’ Persons of modest acquaintance with Latin assumed that the word castor must be related to the verb castrate and to the Latin word for army camp castrum. Why, that must be why the beaver is named Castor, because he castrates himself when hunted. Not really.

As it happens there is a connection between these Latin words, but no one I know in history deduced it until the great English etymologist Eric Partridge did so. In Origins (6th ed., 1966) Eric Partridge hypothesized that the Old Latin word kastrom held the long-lost connection between castor and castrate. Now kastrom is the Old Latin form of castrum ‘army camp.’ The root is Proto-Indo-European *kez or *kas ‘to cut off.’ A camp was an area cut off, perhaps by trenches, where an army might encamp and pitch tents. Castrare is ‘to cut off the testicles.’ When we come to the word for beaver castor, the myth of biting off its testicles re-enforces a derivation from castrare. Not many Romans, if any, knew Sanskrit cognates like kasturi ‘musk’ or ‘castoreum.’Kasturi seems much the most likely etymological brother of castor. So it’s complicated but fascinating to watch how language is deeply influenced and altered by myth and belief, however faulty the reasoning. Strange it is, but typically human, that for possibly 3,000 years not one hunter ever cornered a beaver and watched to observe if it would bite off its own testicles. For, of course, when cornered, beavers do no such thing—ever. Canadians do; but beavers don’t.>>