Take a Walk to the Stars

Imagine shrinking the Universe until it's a short walk to the nearest stars. Then consider...

How big is the solar system?
-- If Alpha Centauri is 100 yards away, our entire solar system fits on a postage stamp.
How far away are the bright stars?
-- Some of them are vastly more luminous than others.
Of the three Summer Triangle stars, Altair and Vega are relatively nearby -- 16 and 26 light-years away -- and only a few dozen times brighter than the Sun. But Deneb is something like 100,000 brighter than the sun, and looks impressive for a couple thousand light-years in all directions.
But it won't be so impressive for long -- such luminous stars are spendthrifts, and will burn through their hydrogen fuel in only a few million years -- thousands of times shorter than our Sun's lifetime.

See a handout or pick up the whole shebang, including interactive data for partiview.

Start with: partiview starwalk.cf

Thanks to Guy Ottewell's wonderful book, "The Astronomical Companion", for his diagrams and way of looking at the distances to the stars, for inspiration.

-- Stuart Levy