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137-446: Williamson initially wrote about 50 pages in manuscript for the first draft, and worked up about 150 pages of notes for the novel's completion. Finding himself "blocked" on the project, he turned his materials over to Gunn, who completed the book. It was sold to Gnome for a $ 500 advance. It is an adventure story in the classic Williamson tradition, woven with a reflection about the relative importance of impersonal forces and individuals in

274-414: A common proper motion with Canopus. The projected separation of the M dwarf 2MASS J06234738-5351131 ("Canopus B") is approximately 1.9 parsecs. However, despite this large separation, it is still within the estimated tidal radius (2.9 parsecs) for the massive star Canopus. Since it is more luminous than any star closer to Earth, Canopus has been the brightest star in the night sky during three epochs over

411-565: A limb-darkened value of 6.86  mas , close to the accepted modern value. Very-long-baseline interferometry has been used to calculate Canopus' angular diameter at 6.9  mas . Combined with distance calculated from its Hipparcos parallax, this gives it a radius of 71 times that of the Sun . If it were at the centre of the Solar System, it would extend 90% of the way to the orbit of Mercury . The radius and temperature relative to

548-470: A Harsh Mistress as "unquestionably one of the three or four most influential libertarian novels of the last century". Heinlein did not publish Stranger in a Strange Land until some time after it was written, and the themes of free love and radical individualism are prominently featured in his long-unpublished first novel, For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs . The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress tells of

685-565: A Strange Land ) to 1973 ( Time Enough for Love ), Heinlein explored some of his most important themes, such as individualism , libertarianism , and free expression of physical and emotional love. Three novels from this period, Stranger in a Strange Land , The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress , and Time Enough for Love , won the Libertarian Futurist Society 's Prometheus Hall of Fame Award , designed to honor classic libertarian fiction. Jeff Riggenbach described The Moon Is

822-669: A Strange Land ) to write and publish a book exploring ideas of civic virtue, initially serialized as Starship Soldiers . In 1959, his novel (now entitled Starship Troopers ) was considered by the editors and owners of Scribner's to be too controversial for one of its prestige lines, and it was rejected. Heinlein found another publisher ( Putnam ), feeling himself released from the constraints of writing novels for children. He had told an interviewer that he did not want to do stories that merely added to categories defined by other works. Rather he wanted to do his own work, stating that: "I want to do my own stuff, my own way". He would go on to write

959-571: A Strange Land , Starship Troopers (which helped mold the space marine and mecha archetypes) and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress . His work sometimes had controversial aspects, such as plural marriage in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress , militarism in Starship Troopers and technologically competent women characters who were formidable, yet often stereotypically feminine—such as Friday . Heinlein used his science fiction as

1096-428: A changeable nature, as opposed to always-visible Polaris, which was circumpolar and hence 'steadfast'. The south celestial pole can be approximately located using Canopus and two different bright stars. The first, Achernar , makes an equilateral triangle between the stars and the south pole. One can also locate the pole more roughly using an imaginary line between Sirius and Canopus; Canopus will be approximately at

1233-412: A controversial work and his personal riposte to leftists calling for President Dwight D. Eisenhower to stop nuclear testing in 1958. "The 'Patrick Henry' ad shocked 'em", he wrote many years later of the campaign. " Starship Troopers outraged 'em." Starship Troopers is a coming-of-age story about duty, citizenship, and the role of the military in society. The book portrays a society in which suffrage

1370-410: A cow, and ordered their medicine men to roll bone dice and read the fortune for the coming year. To the ǀXam -speaking Bushmen of South Africa, Canopus and Sirius signalled the appearance of termites and flying ants. They also believed that stars had the power to cause death and misfortune, and they would pray to Sirius and Canopus in particular to impart good fortune or skill. The ǃKung people of

1507-642: A few weeks of graduate classes in mathematics and physics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), but he soon quit, either because of his ill-health or because of a desire to enter politics. Heinlein supported himself at several occupations, including real estate sales and silver mining , but for some years found money in short supply. Heinlein was active in Upton Sinclair 's socialist End Poverty in California movement (EPIC) in

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1644-406: A life-threatening attack of peritonitis , recovery from which required more than two years, and treatment of which required multiple transfusions of Heinlein's rare blood type, A2 negative . As soon as he was well enough to write again, he began work on Time Enough for Love (1973), which introduced many of the themes found in his later fiction. In the mid-1970s, Heinlein wrote two articles for

1781-510: A magnetic field that varies with the same period, detected by the Zeeman splitting of its spectral lines. Canopus is bright at microwave wavelengths, one of the few F-class stars to be detected by radio. The rotation period of the star is not accurately known, but may be over three hundred days. The projected rotational velocity has been measured at 9 km/s. An early interferometric measurement of its angular diameter in 1968 gave

1918-480: A matter of principle. The novels that Heinlein wrote for a young audience are commonly called "the Heinlein juveniles", and they feature a mixture of adolescent and adult themes. Many of the issues that he takes on in these books have to do with the kinds of problems that adolescents experience. His protagonists are usually intelligent teenagers who have to make their way in the adult society they see around them. On

2055-586: A meeting of the Directors in disguise, with Wu playing the role of Director Matal (the real one having been murdered by an agent of the ambitious Duchane, Director of Security). Horn and Wu rescue Wendre and escape while the other Directors are locked in a presumably fatal struggle. They make their way to the North Polar Cap and attempt to turn off the Tubes, finding that mere possession of pure Golden Blood

2192-568: A military academy. When Heinlein graduated from Kansas City Central High School in 1924, he was initially prevented from attending the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis because his older brother Rex was a student there, and at the time, regulations discouraged multiple family members from attending the academy simultaneously. He instead matriculated at Kansas City Community College and began vigorously petitioning Missouri Senator James A. Reed for an appointment to

2329-799: A modern version of a waterbed in his novel Stranger in a Strange Land . Heinlein, born on July 7, 1907, to Rex Ivar Heinlein (an accountant) and Bam Lyle Heinlein, in Butler, Missouri , was the third of seven children. He was a sixth-generation German-American ; a family tradition had it that Heinleins fought in every American war, starting with the War of Independence . He spent his childhood in Kansas City, Missouri . The outlook and values of this time and place (in his own words, "The Bible Belt ") had an influence on his fiction, especially in his later works, as he drew heavily upon his childhood in establishing

2466-469: A paper dating Tasmanian Aboriginal oral tradition to the late Pleistocene, when Canopus was much closer to the South celestial pole . Canopus appears on the flag of Brazil , symbolising the state of Goiás . Two U.S. Navy submarine tenders have been named after Canopus, the first serving from 1922 to 1942 and the second serving from 1965 to 1994. The Royal Navy built nine Canopus-class ships of

2603-538: A publisher, Scribner's , that began publishing a Heinlein juvenile once a year for the Christmas season. Eight of these books were illustrated by Clifford Geary in a distinctive white-on-black scratchboard style. Some representative novels of this type are Have Space Suit—Will Travel , Farmer in the Sky , and Starman Jones . Many of these were first published in serial form under other titles, e.g., Farmer in

2740-435: A radio series, and a board game have been derived more or less directly from his work. He wrote a screenplay for one of the films. Heinlein edited an anthology of other writers' SF short stories. Three nonfiction books and two poems have been published posthumously. For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs was published posthumously in 2003; Variable Star , written by Spider Robinson based on an extensive outline by Heinlein,

2877-607: A revolution in which young students are involved; his editor demanded substantial changes in this book's discussion of topics such as the use of weapons by children and the misidentified sex of the Martian character. Heinlein was always aware of the editorial limitations put in place by the editors of his novels and stories, and while he observed those restrictions on the surface, was often successful in introducing ideas not often seen in other authors' juvenile SF. In 1957, James Blish wrote that one reason for Heinlein's success "has been

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3014-426: A series of challenging books that redrew the boundaries of science fiction, including Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966). Beginning in 1970, Heinlein had a series of health crises, broken by strenuous periods of activity in his hobby of stonemasonry : in a private correspondence, he referred to that as his "usual and favorite occupation between books". The decade began with

3151-726: A seven-year hiatus brought on by poor health, Heinlein produced five new novels in the period from 1980 ( The Number of the Beast ) to 1987 ( To Sail Beyond the Sunset ). These books have a thread of common characters and time and place. They most explicitly communicated Heinlein's philosophies and beliefs, and many long, didactic passages of dialog and exposition deal with government, sex, and religion. These novels are controversial among his readers and one critic, David Langford , has written about them very negatively. Heinlein's four Hugo awards were all for books written before this period. Most of

3288-520: A star had been used. Canopus was little-studied by western scientists before the 20th century. It was given a spectral class of F in 1897, an early use of this extension to Secchi class I, applied to those stars where the hydrogen lines are relatively weak and the calcium K line relatively strong. It was given as a standard star of F0 in the Henry Draper Catalogue , with the spectral type F0 described as having hydrogen lines half

3425-579: A strong influence on his character and writing. In 1929, he graduated from the Naval Academy with the equivalent of a bachelor of arts in engineering. (At that time, the Academy did not confer degrees.) He ranked fifth in his class academically but with a class standing of 20th of 243 due to disciplinary demerits. The U.S. Navy commissioned him as an ensign shortly after his graduation. He advanced to lieutenant junior grade in 1931 while serving aboard

3562-407: A travelogue of their first around-the-world tour in 1954, Tramp Royale . The novel Podkayne of Mars, which had been edited against Heinlein's wishes in their original release, was reissued with the original ending. Stranger In a Strange Land was originally published in a shorter form, but both the long and short versions are now simultaneously available in print. Heinlein's archive is housed by

3699-618: A war of independence waged by the Lunar penal colonies, with significant comments from a major character, Professor La Paz, regarding the threat posed by government to individual freedom. Although Heinlein had previously written a few short stories in the fantasy genre, during this period he wrote his first fantasy novel, Glory Road . In Stranger in a Strange Land and I Will Fear No Evil , he began to mix hard science with fantasy, mysticism, and satire of organized religion. Critics William H. Patterson, Jr., and Andrew Thornton believe that this

3836-426: A way to explore provocative social and political ideas and to speculate how progress in science and engineering might shape the future of politics, race, religion, and sex. Within the framework of his science-fiction stories, Heinlein repeatedly addressed certain social themes: the importance of individual liberty and self-reliance , the nature of sexual relationships, the obligation individuals owe to their societies,

3973-403: A writer, and finds love with a female character. The 1982 novel Friday , a more conventional adventure story (borrowing a character and backstory from the earlier short story Gulf , also containing suggestions of connection to The Puppet Masters ) continued a Heinlein theme of expecting what he saw as the continued disintegration of Earth's society, to the point where the title character

4110-634: Is a Latinisation of the Ancient Greek name Κάνωβος/Kanôbos, recorded in Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest (c.150 AD). Eratosthenes used the same spelling. Hipparchos wrote it as Κάνωπος. John Flamsteed wrote Canobus, as did Edmond Halley in his 1679 Catalogus Stellarum Australium . The name has two possible derivations, both listed in Richard Hinckley Allen 's seminal Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning . In 2016,

4247-573: Is almost exactly the latitude of Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton, California , from which it is readily visible because of the effects of elevation and atmospheric refraction , which add another degree to its apparent altitude. Under ideal conditions, it can be spotted as far north as latitude 37° 31′ from the Pacific coast. Another northernmost record of visibility came from Mount Nemrut in Turkey, latitude 37° 59′. It

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4384-486: Is at sea level . Robert and Virginia designed and built a new residence, circular in shape, in the adjacent village of Bonny Doon . Ginny undoubtedly served as a model for many of his intelligent, fiercely independent female characters. She was a chemist and rocket test engineer , and held a higher rank in the Navy than Heinlein himself. She was also an accomplished college athlete , earning four letters. In 1953–1954,

4521-530: Is earned by demonstrated willingness to place society's interests before one's own, at least for a short time and often under onerous circumstances, in government service; in the case of the protagonist, this was military service. Later, in Expanded Universe , Heinlein said that it was his intention in the novel that service could include positions outside strictly military functions such as teachers, police officers, and other government positions. This

4658-476: Is essentially white when seen with the naked eye. It has a luminosity over 10,000 times the luminosity of the Sun , is eight times as massive , and has expanded to 71 times the Sun's radius . Its enlarged photosphere has an effective temperature of around 7400 K . Canopus is undergoing core helium burning and is currently in the so-called blue loop phase of its evolution , having already passed through

4795-453: Is less yellow than Altair or Procyon , with indices measured as 0.22 and 0.42, respectively. Some observers may have perceived Canopus as yellow-tinged because it is low in the sky and hence subject to atmospheric effects. Patrick Moore said that it never appeared anything but white to him. The bolometric correction for Canopus is 0.00, indicating that the visual absolute magnitude and bolometric absolute magnitude are equal. Canopus

4932-488: Is more easily visible in places such as the Gulf Coast and Florida, and the island of Crete (Greece) where the best season for viewing it around 9 p.m. is during late January and early February. Canopus has a B–V color index of +0.15—where 0 is a blue-white—indicating it is essentially white, although it has been described as yellow-white. Canopus' spectral type has been given as F0 and the incrementally warmer A9. It

5069-419: Is nearing death from natural causes, the adventurer Horn has been hired by parties unknown to assassinate him. Making his way through the desert, past a gauntlet of guards and security forces, Horn encounters Wu, an aging Chinese vendor, and his curious shape-changing companion Lil, neither of whom seem capable of surviving the dangers and harsh conditions of the desert. Yet they are every bit his equal in reaching

5206-589: Is not, in fact, the secret of deactivating them. Troops and revolutionaries clash incoherently at the polar cap, and Horn is eventually captured and sent to the prison planet of Vantee. Forging an alliance with the outlaws there, he takes advantage of the political conflict in the home world to capture the prison, apparently rescuing in the process Peter Sair, the Liberator, the leader of the failed revolt against Eron wherein Horn learned his skills. Returning with Sair to

5343-419: Is presented in the novel as an outgrowth of the failure of unearned suffrage government and as a very successful arrangement. In addition, the franchise was only awarded after leaving the assigned service; thus those serving their terms—in the military, or any other service—were excluded from exercising any franchise. Career military were completely disenfranchised until retirement. From about 1961 ( Stranger in

5480-545: Is rescued by Wendre and Wu is apparently (finally) shot dead. Wendre and Horn plan to marry and move to the rural Cluster, far from her Eronian home. Is Wu the puppet master controlling all, or merely an immortal opportunist? Is freedom an illusion or a necessity, or both? The answers are recorded in a manuscript in Chinese that no one but Wu can read. Anthony Boucher dismissed the novel as "pretty lifeless fiction, in which both prose and characterization emerge directly from

5617-436: Is simply an expression of Heinlein's longstanding philosophical opposition to positivism . Heinlein stated that he was influenced by James Branch Cabell in taking this new literary direction. The penultimate novel of this period, I Will Fear No Evil , is according to critic James Gifford "almost universally regarded as a literary failure" and he attributes its shortcomings to Heinlein's near-death from peritonitis . After

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5754-565: Is that bright Star in the sterne of Argo which they call Canobus. The second is in the end of Eridanus . The third is in the right foote of the Centaure ." In the Southern Hemisphere , Canopus and Sirius are both visible high in the sky simultaneously, and reach a meridian just 21 min apart. Brighter than first magnitude , Canopus can be seen by naked eye in the early twilight. Mostly visible in mid to late summer in

5891-417: Is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina and the second-brightest star in the night sky . It is also designated α Carinae , which is romanized ( transliterated ) to Alpha Carinae . With a visual apparent magnitude of −0.74, it is outshone only by Sirius . Located around 310  light-years from the Sun , Canopus is a bright giant of spectral type A9 , so it

6028-719: Is used for other stars and constellations throughout Polynesia. Kapae-poto , "Short horizon", referred to it rarely setting as seen in New Zealand; Kauanga ("Solitary") was the name for Canopus only when it was the last star visible before sunrise. The people of the Society Islands had two names for Canopus, as did the Tuamotu people. The Society Islanders called Canopus Taurua-e-tupu-tai-nanu , "Festivity-whence-comes-the-flux-of-the-sea", and Taurua-nui-o-te-hiti-apatoa "Great-festivity-of-the-border-of-the-south", and

6165-680: The Alfonsine tables , Suhel ponderosus, a Latinization of Al Suhayl al Wazn . Its Greek name was revived during the Renaissance . The Arabic Muslim astronomer Ibn Rushd went to Marrakesh (in Morocco) to observe the star in 1153, as it was invisible in his native Córdoba , Al-Andalus . He used the different visibility in different latitudes to argue that the Earth is round , following Aristotle's argument which held that such an observation

6302-558: The Britannica Compton Yearbook . He and Ginny crisscrossed the country helping to reorganize blood donation in the United States in an effort to assist the system which had saved his life. At science fiction conventions to receive his autograph, fans would be asked to co-sign with Heinlein a beautifully embellished pledge form he supplied stating that the recipient agrees that they will donate blood . He

6439-822: The Bright Star Catalogue as HR 2326, the Henry Draper Catalogue as HD 45348, and the Hipparcos catalogue as HIP 30438. Flamsteed did not number this southern star, but Benjamin Apthorp Gould gave it the number 7 (7 G. Carinae) in his Uranometria Argentina . An occasional name seen in English is Soheil , or the feminine Soheila; in Turkish is Süheyl , or the feminine Süheyla, from the Arabic name for several bright stars, سهيل suhayl , and Canopus

6576-544: The Gaia satellite and there is no published Gaia parallax for it. At present the star is drifting further away from the Sun with a radial velocity of 20 km/s. Some 3.1 million years ago it made the closest approach to the Sun at a distance of about 172 ly (53 pc). Canopus is orbiting the Milky Way with a heliocentric velocity of 24.5 km/s and a low eccentricity of 0.065. The absorption lines in

6713-601: The International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN, which included Canopus for this star. Canopus is now included in the IAU Catalog of Star Names . Canopus traditionally marked the steering oar of

6850-892: The Kalahari Desert in Botswana held Canopus and Capella to be the horns of tshxum (the Pleiades), the appearance of all three marking the end of the dry season and start of the rainy season. The Navajo observed the star and named it Maʼii Bizòʼ , the “Coyote Star”. According to legend, Maʼii (Coyote) took part in the naming and placing of the star constellations during the creation of the universe. He placed Canopus directly south, naming it after himself. The Kalapalo people of Mato Grosso state in Brazil saw Canopus and Procyon as Kofongo "Duck", with Castor and Pollux representing his hands. The asterism's appearance signified

6987-723: The Shiji ( Records of the Grand Historian ) completed in 94 BC by Chinese historian Sima Qian . Drawing on sources from the Warring States period , he noted it to be the southern counterpart of Sirius , and wrote of a sanctuary dedicated to it established by Emperor Qin Shi Huang between 221 and 210 BC. During the Han dynasty , the star was auspicious, its appearance in the southern sky heralding peace and absence war. From

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7124-462: The main sequence . The position of Canopus in the H–R diagram indicates that it is currently in the core-helium burning phase. It is an intermediate mass star that has left the red-giant branch before its core became degenerate and is now in a blue loop . Models of stellar evolution in the blue loop phase show that the length of the blue loop is strongly affected by rotation and mixing effects inside

7261-437: The red-giant branch after exhausting the hydrogen in its core. Canopus is a source of X-rays , which are likely being emitted from its corona . The prominent appearance of Canopus means it has been the subject of mythological lore among many ancient peoples. Its proper name is generally considered to originate from the mythological Canopus , who was a navigator for Menelaus , king of Sparta . The acronycal rising marked

7398-854: The 1941 Worldcon , held in Denver. During World War II , Heinlein was employed by the Navy as a civilian aeronautical engineer at the Navy Aircraft Materials Center at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Pennsylvania . Heinlein recruited Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp to also work there. While at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyards, Asimov, Heinlein, and de Camp brainstormed unconventional approaches to kamikaze attacks, such as using sound to detect approaching planes. As

7535-647: The Chinese capital of Chang'an . The Chinese astronomer Yi Xing had journeyed south to chart Canopus and other far southern stars in 724 AD. Its personification as the Old Man Star was popularised in the Tang dynasty , where it appeared often in poetry and memorials. Later still, during the Ming dynasty , the star was established as one of the Three Stars (Fu Lo Shou), appearing frequently in art and literature of

7672-521: The Future History on some points, while maintaining consistency in some other areas. The Future History was eventually overtaken by actual events. These discrepancies were explained, after a fashion, in his later World as Myth stories. Heinlein's first novel published as a book, Rocket Ship Galileo , was initially rejected because going to the Moon was considered too far-fetched, but he soon found

7809-478: The Heinlein mythos where unrepentant law-breakers are exiled). It appears that Heinlein at least attempted to live in a manner consistent with these ideals, even in the 1930s, and had an open relationship in his marriage to his second wife, Leslyn. He was also a nudist ; nudism and body taboos are frequently discussed in his work. At the height of the Cold War , he built a bomb shelter under his house, like

7946-613: The Heinleins voyaged around the world (mostly via ocean liners and cargo liners , as Ginny detested flying), which Heinlein described in Tramp Royale , and which also provided background material for science fiction novels set aboard spaceships on long voyages, such as Podkayne of Mars , Friday and Job: A Comedy of Justice , the latter initially being set on a cruise much as detailed in Tramp Royale . Ginny acted as

8083-460: The Living: A Comedy of Customs (1939), did not see print during his lifetime, but Robert James tracked down the manuscript and it was published in 2003. Though some regard it as a failure as a novel, considering it little more than a disguised lecture on Heinlein's social theories , some readers took a very different view. In a review of it, John Clute wrote: I'm not about to suggest that if Heinlein had been able to publish [such works] openly in

8220-482: The MK spectral classification scheme, Canopus was assigned class Iab indicating an intermediate luminosity supergiant. This was based on the relative strengths of certain spectral lines understood to be sensitive to the luminosity of a star. In the Bright Star Catalogue 5th edition it is given the spectral class F0II, the luminosity class indicating a bright giant . Balmer line profiles and oxygen line strengths indicate

8357-603: The Naval Academy. In part due to the influence of the Pendergast machine , the Naval Academy admitted him in June 1925. Heinlein received his discharge from the Missouri National Guard as a staff sergeant. Reed later told Heinlein that he had received 100 letters of recommendation for nomination to the Naval Academy, 50 for other candidates and 50 for Heinlein. Heinlein's experience in the U.S. Navy exerted

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8494-586: The Ptolemaia festival, which was held every four years, from 262 to 145 BC. The Greek astronomer Posidonius used observations of Canopus to calculate quite accurately the Earth's circumference , around 90 – 120 BC. In Indian Vedic literature , Canopus is associated with the sage Agastya , one of the ancient siddhars and rishis (the others are associated with the stars of the Big Dipper ). To Agastya,

8631-564: The Reagan SDI spring 1983 speech. Asked to appear before a Joint Committee of the United States Congress that year, he testified on his belief that spin-offs from space technology were benefiting the infirm and the elderly. Heinlein's surgical treatment re-energized him, and he wrote five novels from 1980 until he died in his sleep from emphysema and heart failure on May 8, 1988. In 1995, Spider Robinson wrote

8768-529: The Sky was published as Satellite Scout in the Boy Scout magazine Boys' Life . There has been speculation that Heinlein's intense obsession with his privacy was due at least in part to the apparent contradiction between his unconventional private life and his career as an author of books for children. However, For Us, the Living explicitly discusses the political importance Heinlein attached to privacy as

8905-563: The Southern Hemisphere, Canopus culminates at midnight on December 27, and at 9 PM on February 11. When seen from latitudes south of 37° 18′ S, Canopus is a circumpolar star . Since Canopus is so far south in the sky, it never rises in mid- to far-northern latitudes; in theory the northern limit of visibility is latitude 37° 18′ north. This is just south of Athens , San Francisco , and Seoul , and very close to Seville and Agrigento . It

9042-649: The Special Collections department of McHenry Library at the University of California at Santa Cruz . The collection includes manuscript drafts, correspondence, photographs and artifacts. A substantial portion of the archive has been digitized and it is available online through the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Archives. Heinlein published 32 novels, 59 short stories, and 16 collections during his life. Nine films, two television series, several episodes of

9179-522: The Sun means that it is 10,700 times more luminous than the Sun, and its position in the H-R diagram relative to theoretical evolutionary tracks means that it is 8.0 ± 0.3 times as massive as the Sun. Measurements of its shape find a 1.1° departure from spherical symmetry. Canopus is a source of X-rays , which are probably produced by its corona, magnetically heated to several million Kelvin . The temperature has likely been stimulated by fast rotation combined with strong convection percolating through

9316-456: The Tuamotu people called the star Te Tau-rari and Marere-te-tavahi , the latter said to be the true name for the former, "He-who-stands-alone". In the Guanche mythology of the island of Tenerife (Spain), the star Canopus was linked with the goddess Chaxiraxi . The Tswana people of Botswana knew Canopus as Naka . Appearing late in winter skies, it heralded increasing winds and a time when trees lose their leaves. Stock owners knew it

9453-415: The assumption of a very bright absolute magnitude for Canopus. Hipparcos established Canopus as being 310 light-years ( 95  parsecs ) from the Solar System ; this is based on its 2007 parallax measurement of 10.43 ± 0.53  mas . At 95 parsecs, the interstellar extinction for Canopus is low at 0.26 magnitudes. Canopus is too bright to be included in the normal observation runs of

9590-406: The body and Procyon the northern wingtip, which divided the Polynesian night sky into two hemispheres. The Hawaiian people called Canopus Ke Alii-o-kona-i-ka-lewa , "The chief of the southern expanse"; it was one of the stars used by Hawaiʻiloa and Ki when they traveled to the Southern Ocean . The Māori people of New Zealand/Aotearoa had several names for Canopus. Ariki ("High-born"),

9727-433: The book which "turned [them] on" to science fiction. More than twenty years after it first appeared, a surprised Gerald Jonas raved over the novel in The New York Times Book Review , saying "this obscure [novel] reads more like a collaboration between Heinlein and Asimov , noting that one reason "the book works so well [is] because the authors are not ashamed of what they are doing at any level." Canopus Canopus

9864-583: The brightest, and will remain so for a period of about 510,000 years. The southeastern wall of the Kaaba in Mecca is aligned with the rising point of Canopus, and is also named Janūb . The Bedouin people of the Negev and Sinai knew Canopus as Suhayl , and used it and Polaris as the two principal stars for navigation at night. Because it disappears below the horizon in those regions, it became associated with

10001-411: The celebration, descending from hiding to mingle with the wealthy, entertaining the idle while Lil steals and consumes their diamonds. Horn completes his mission, and in the desperate struggle to escape the ensuing manhunt, he encounters Wendre Kohlnar, the beautiful daughter and now possibly the heir-apparent of the dead man. Escaping through a transdimensional Tube in a space suit, Horn finds himself on

10138-456: The chaos of Eron, Horn is able to capture the critical polar cap Tube station and thus take control of the planet, which he hands over to Wendre, and she in turn to Sair. As Horn and Wendre Kohlnar interview the imprisoned Duchane, Horn is tricked into shooting the prisoner just before he can reveal a key secret: the nature of Wu. Wu, in turn, falls victim to the temptation to explain his curious place in history to Horn, his intended victim, but Horn

10275-402: The coming of the rainy season and increase in manioc , a food staple fed to guests at feasts. Canopus is identified as the moiety ancestor Waa "Crow" to some Koori people in southeastern Australia. The Boorong people of northwestern Victoria recalled that War (Canopus) was the brother of Warepil (Sirius), and that he brought fire from the heavens and introduced it to humanity. His wife

10412-727: The commander of the U.S. Navy's first modern aircraft carrier. Heinlein also served as gunnery officer aboard the destroyer USS  Roper in 1933 and 1934, reaching the rank of lieutenant. His brother, Lawrence Heinlein, served in the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, and the Missouri National Guard , reaching the rank of major general in the National Guard. In 1929, Heinlein married Elinor Curry of Kansas City. However, their marriage lasted only about one year. His second marriage, to Leslyn MacDonald (1904–1981) in 1932, lasted 15 years. MacDonald was, according to

10549-543: The contest's first-prize payoff. Another Future History story, "Misfit", followed in November. Some saw Heinlein's talent and stardom from his first story, and he was quickly acknowledged as a leader of the new movement toward "social" science fiction . In California he hosted the Mañana Literary Society , a 1940–41 series of informal gatherings of new authors. He was the guest of honor at Denvention,

10686-627: The date of the Ptolemaia festival in Egypt. In ancient India, it was named Agastya after the revered Vedic sage. For Chinese astronomers, it was known as the Old Man of the South Pole . In Islamic astronomy , it is Suhail or Suhayl , a name that is also commonly used to imply rareness of appearance (as the Canopus infrequently appeared to a gazer at Middle Eastern latitutes) The name Canopus

10823-420: The development of Heinlein's radical ideas about man as a social animal , including his interest in free love . The root of many themes found in his later stories can be found in this book. It also contained a large amount of material that could be considered background for his other novels. This included a detailed description of the protagonist's treatment to avoid being banished to Coventry (a lawless land in

10960-598: The early 1930s. He was deputy publisher of the EPIC News , which Heinlein noted "recalled a mayor, kicked out a district attorney, replaced the governor with one of our choice." When Sinclair gained the Democratic nomination for Governor of California in 1934, Heinlein worked actively in the campaign. Heinlein himself ran for the California State Assembly in 1938, but was unsuccessful. Heinlein

11097-469: The events of history. The scattered planets are held together by the Eron Company, holder—at least apparently—of the secret of faster-than-light travel through the Tubes, which are powered through energy drawn from the star Canopus . The leaders of Eron are gathered on ancient Earth to dedicate a new Tube, near the ruins of what had been Denver, Colorado . Though aging General Manager Garth Kohlnar

11234-448: The first few years of his career." Alexei expresses awe in Heinlein's ability to show readers a world so drastically different from the one we live in now, yet have so many similarities. He says that "We find ourselves not only in a world other than our own, but identifying with a living, breathing individual who is operating within its context, and thinking and acting according to its terms." The first novel that Heinlein wrote, For Us,

11371-403: The first reader of his manuscripts . Isaac Asimov believed that Heinlein made a swing to the right politically at the same time he married Ginny. In 1934, Heinlein was discharged from the Navy, owing to pulmonary tuberculosis . During a lengthy hospitalization, and inspired by his own experience while bed-ridden, he developed a design for a waterbed . After his discharge, Heinlein attended

11508-415: The first science fiction writer to break out of the " pulp ghetto ". In 1950, the movie Destination Moon —the documentary-like film for which he had written the story and scenario, co-written the script, and invented many of the effects—won an Academy Award for special effects . Heinlein created SF stories with social commentary about relationships. In The Puppet Masters , a 1951 alien invasion novel,

11645-446: The high grade of machinery which goes, today as always, into his story-telling. Heinlein seems to have known from the beginning, as if instinctively, technical lessons about fiction which other writers must learn the hard way (or often enough, never learn). He does not always operate the machinery to the best advantage, but he always seems to be aware of it." Heinlein decisively ended his juvenile novels with Starship Troopers (1959),

11782-466: The horizon, while Eratosthenes and Ptolemy —observing from Alexandria —did, calling it Kanōbos . An Egyptian priestly poet in the time of Thutmose III mentions the star as Karbana, "the star which pours his light in a glance of fire, when he disperses the morning dew." Under the Ptolemies , the star was known as Ptolemaion ( Greek : Πτολεμαῖον) and its acronychal rising marked the date of

11919-567: The imperial capital Chang'an , the star made a low transit across the southern sky, indicating true south to observers, and was often obscured by clouds. During this time it was also equated with Old Man of the South Pole (in Chinese : 南极老人 ; pinyin : Nanji Lǎorén ) Under this name, Canopus appears (albeit misplaced northwards) on the medieval Chinese manuscript the Dunhuang Star Chart , although it cannot be seen from

12056-616: The incoming Reagan administration . Members included such aerospace industry leaders as former astronaut Buzz Aldrin , General Daniel O. Graham , aerospace engineer Max Hunter and North American Rockwell VP for Space Shuttle development George Merrick. Policy recommendations from the Council included ballistic missile defense concepts which were later transformed into what was called the Strategic Defense Initiative . Heinlein assisted with Council contribution to

12193-467: The influence of organized religion on culture and government, and the tendency of society to repress nonconformist thought. He also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices. Heinlein was heavily influenced by the visionary writers and philosophers of his day. William H. Patterson Jr, writing in Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with his Century, states that by 1930, Heinlein

12330-445: The launch of the Hipparcos satellite telescope, distance estimates for Canopus varied widely, from 96 light-years to 1200 light-years (or 30 to 370 parsecs). For example, an old distance estimate of 200 parsecs (652 light years) gave it a luminosity of 80,000  L ☉ , far higher than modern estimates. The closer distance was derived from parallax measurements of around 33  mas . The larger distance derives from

12467-686: The line in the early 19th century, and six Canopus -class battleships which entered services between 1899 and 1902. There are at least two mountains named after the star: Mount Canopus in Antarctica; and Mount Canopus or Canopus Hill in Tasmania , the location of the Canopus Hill astronomical observatory . Robert A. Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein ( / ˈ h aɪ n l aɪ n / ; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988)

12604-479: The luminosity of the star as described by the Wilson-Bappu effect , but in the case of Canopus they indicate a luminosity much lower than that calculated by other methods. More detailed observations have shown that the emission line profiles are variable and may be due to plage areas on the surface of the star. Emission can also be found in other lines such as the h and k lines of ionised magnesium. Before

12741-438: The machine, untouched by human hands." P. Schuyler Miller , however, found Star Bridge to be "a grand, old-fashioned razzle-dazzle yarn" and "unabashed action-adventure", concluding "Even though it probably won't be on any 'best' lists, it's fun to read." The New York Times ' s Villiers Gerson similarly described it as a "fast-moving blood-and-thunder novel". Both Samuel R. Delany and Edward Bryant cited Star Bridge as

12878-450: The midpoint, being 36° one way to Sirius and 37° to the pole. Canopus's brightness and location well off the ecliptic make it useful for space navigation. Many spacecraft carry a special camera known as a "Canopus Star Tracker " plus a Sun sensor for attitude determination. Mariner 4 used Canopus for second axis stabilisation (after locking on the Sun) in 1964, the first time

13015-526: The new aircraft carrier USS  Lexington , where he worked in radio communications —a technology then still in its earlier stages. The captain of this carrier, Ernest J. King , later served as the Chief of Naval Operations and Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet during World War II . Military historians frequently interviewed Heinlein during his later years and asked him about Captain King and his service as

13152-501: The next few months, he became more and more exhausted, and his health again began to decline. The problem was determined to be a blocked carotid artery , and he had one of the earliest known carotid bypass operations to correct it. In 1980, Robert Heinlein was a member of the Citizen's Advisory Council on National Space Policy , chaired by Jerry Pournelle , which met at the home of SF writer Larry Niven to write space policy papers for

13289-483: The north foretell a mild winter. Food was offered to the star on its appearance. This name has several mythologies attached to it. One story tells of how Atutahi was left outside the basket representing the Milky Way when Tāne wove it. Another related myth about the star says that Atutahi was the first-born child of Rangi , who refused to enter the Milky Way and so turned it sideways and rose before it. The same name

13426-484: The novel Variable Star based on an outline and notes created by Heinlein. Heinlein's posthumously published nonfiction includes a selection of correspondence and notes edited into a somewhat autobiographical examination of his career, published in 1989 under the title Grumbles from the Grave by his wife, Virginia; his book on practical politics written in 1946 and published as Take Back Your Government in 1992; and

13563-477: The novels from this period are recognized by critics as forming an offshoot from the Future History series and are referred to by the term World as Myth . The tendency toward authorial self-reference begun in Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love becomes even more evident in novels such as The Cat Who Walks Through Walls , whose first-person protagonist is a disabled military veteran who becomes

13700-529: The one featured in Farnham's Freehold . After For Us, the Living , Heinlein began selling (to magazines) first short stories, then novels, set in a Future History , complete with a time line of significant political, cultural, and technological changes. A chart of the future history was published in the May 1941 issue of Astounding . Over time, Heinlein wrote many novels and short stories that deviated freely from

13837-466: The pages of Astounding in 1939, SF would have gotten the future right; I would suggest, however, that if Heinlein, and his colleagues, had been able to publish adult SF in Astounding and its fellow journals, then SF might not have done such a grotesquely poor job of prefiguring something of the flavor of actually living here at the onset of 2004. For Us, the Living was intriguing as a window into

13974-411: The past four million years. Other stars appear brighter only during relatively temporary periods, during which they are passing the Solar System much closer than Canopus. About 90,000 years ago, Sirius moved close enough that it became brighter than Canopus, and that will remain so for another 210,000 years. But in 480,000 years, as Sirius moves further away and appears fainter, Canopus will once again be

14111-508: The planet Eron, a world consumed by the Eron Company. Here he encounters a corrupt and effeminate aristocracy, a brewing power struggle over the succession, a covert revolution, a secret subway known only to the Directors—and Wu and Lil, at every turn displaying more mysterious knowledge and capability. The mystery of who actually knows the secret of the Tubes becomes increasingly important in the quest to become General Manager. Horn attends

14248-746: The point of view character Sam persuades fellow operative Mary to marry him. When they go to the county clerk, they are offered a variety of marriage possibilities; “Term, renewable or lifetime”, as short as six months or as long as forever. Also, he embarked on a series of juvenile novels for the Charles Scribner's Sons publishing company that went from 1947 through 1959, at the rate of one book each autumn, in time for Christmas presents to teenagers. He also wrote for Boys' Life in 1952. Heinlein used topical materials throughout his juvenile series beginning in 1947, but in 1958 he interrupted work on The Heretic (the working title of Stranger in

14385-533: The precession of the Earth's axis the first rising of the star Canopus in Mesopotamia could be observed only from there at the southern meridian at midnight. Today, the star Sigma Sagittarii is known by the common name Nunki. Canopus was not visible to the mainland ancient Greeks and Romans ; it was, however, visible to the ancient Egyptians . Hence Aratus did not write of the star as it remained below

14522-478: The science-fiction genre, and on modern culture more generally. Heinlein became one of the first American science-fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. He was one of the best-selling science-fiction novelists for many decades, and he, Isaac Asimov , and Arthur C. Clarke are often considered the "Big Three" of English-language science fiction authors. Notable Heinlein works include Stranger in

14659-583: The setting and cultural atmosphere in works like Time Enough for Love and To Sail Beyond the Sunset . The 1910 appearance of Halley's Comet inspired the young child's life-long interest in astronomy. In January 1924, the sixteen year old Heinlein lied about his age to enlist in Company C, 110th Engineer Regiment , of the Missouri National Guard , in Kansas City. His family could not afford to send Heinlein to college, so he sought an appointment to

14796-400: The ship Argo Navis . German celestial cartographer Johann Bayer gave it—as the brightest star in the constellation—the designation of α Argus ( Latinised to Alpha Argus ) in 1603. In 1763, French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille divided the huge constellation into three smaller ones, and hence Canopus became α Carinae ( Latinised to Alpha Carinae ). It is listed in

14933-477: The size and luminosity of Canopus. When the effects of stellar rotation speed on spectral lines are accounted for, the MK spectral class of Canopus is adjusted to A9II. Its spectrum consists mostly of absorption lines on a visible continuum , but some emission has been detected. For example, the calcium K line has weak emission wings on each side of the strong central absorption line, first observed in 1966. The emission line profiles are usually correlated with

15070-537: The sky are also associated with states of being for some tribes; the Wailwun of northern New South Wales know Canopus as Wumba "deaf", alongside Mars as Gumba "fat" and Venus as Ngindigindoer "you are laughing". Tasmanian aboriginal lore holds that Canopus is Dromerdene , the brother of Moinee ; the two fought and fell out of the sky, with Dromerdene falling into Louisa Bay in southwest Tasmania. Astronomer Duane Hamacher has identified Canopus with Moinee in

15207-467: The spectrum of Canopus shift slightly with a period of 6.9 d . This was first detected in 1906 and the Doppler variations were interpreted as orbital motion. An orbit was even calculated, but no such companion exists and the small radial velocity changes are due to movements in the atmosphere of the star. The maximum observed radial velocities are only 0.7 to 1.6  km/s . Canopus also has

15344-563: The star is said to be the 'cleanser of waters', and its rising coincides with the calming of the waters of the Indian Ocean . Canopus is described by Pliny the Elder and Gaius Julius Solinus as the largest, brightest and only source of starlight for navigators near Tamraparni island (ancient Sri Lanka) during many nights. Canopus was described as Shou Xing, the Star of Longevity, in

15481-498: The star's heliacal rising with ritual bathing and associated it with morning dew. Bright stars were important to the ancient Polynesians for navigation between the many islands and atolls of the Pacific Ocean. Low on the horizon, they acted as stellar compasses to assist mariners in charting courses to particular destinations. Canopus served as the southern wingtip of a "Great Bird" constellation called Manu , with Sirius as

15618-480: The star's outer layers. The soft X-ray sub-coronal X-ray emission is much weaker than the hard X-ray coronal emission. The same behaviour has been measured in other F-class supergiants such as α Persei and is now believed to be a normal property of such stars. The spectrum of Canopus indicates that it spent some 30 million years of its existence as a blue-white main sequence star of around 10 solar masses, before exhausting its core hydrogen and evolving away from

15755-545: The star. It is difficult to determine whether a star is currently evolving towards hotter temperature or returning to cooler temperatures, since the evolutionary tracks for stars with different masses overlap during the blue loops. Canopus lies on the warm side of the instability strip and does not pulsate like Cepheid variables of a similar luminosity. However its atmosphere does appear to be unstable, showing strong signs of convection. Canopus may be massive enough to explode by an iron-core collapse supernova . Canopus

15892-470: The strength of an A0 star and the calcium K line three times as strong as Hδ. American astronomer Jesse Greenstein was interested in stellar spectra and used the newly built Otto Struve Telescope at McDonald Observatory to analyze the star's spectrum in detail. In a 1942 paper, he reported that the spectrum is dominated by strong broad hydrogen lines. There are also absorption lines of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, iron, and many ionised metals. It

16029-445: The surface, they are simple tales of adventure, achievement, and dealing with stupid teachers and jealous peers. Heinlein was a vocal proponent of the notion that juvenile readers were far more sophisticated and able to handle more complex or difficult themes than most people realized. His juvenile stories often had a maturity to them that made them readable for adults. Red Planet , for example, portrays some subversive themes, including

16166-441: The testimony of Heinlein's Navy friend, Rear Admiral Cal Laning , "astonishingly intelligent, widely read, and extremely liberal, though a registered Republican ", while Isaac Asimov later recalled that Heinlein was, at the time, "a flaming liberal ". (See section: Politics of Robert Heinlein .) At the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard , Heinlein met and befriended a chemical engineer named Virginia "Ginny" Gerstenfeld . After

16303-716: The time. This symbolism spread into neighbouring cultures in Asia. In Japan, Canopus is known as Mera-boshi and Roujin-sei (the old man star), and in Mongolia, it was personified as the White Old Man. Although the link was known in Tibet, with names such as Genpo karpo ( Rgan po dkar po ) or Genkar ( Rgan dkar ) "White Old Man", the symbolism was not popular. Instead, Canopus was more commonly named Karma Rishi སྐར་མ་རི་ཥི། , derived from Indian mythology. Tibetans celebrated

16440-667: The town of Raton, New Mexico . Soon thereafter, they set up housekeeping in the Broadmoor district of Colorado Springs, Colorado , in a house that Heinlein and his wife designed. As the area was newly developed, they were allowed to choose their own house number, 1776 Mesa Avenue. The design of the house was featured in Popular Mechanics . They remained married until Heinlein's death. In 1965, after various chronic health problems of Virginia's were traced back to altitude sickness , they moved to Santa Cruz, California , which

16577-501: The war wound down in 1945, Heinlein began to re-evaluate his career. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , along with the outbreak of the Cold War , galvanized him to write nonfiction on political topics. In addition, he wanted to break into better-paying markets. He published four influential short stories for The Saturday Evening Post magazine, leading off, in February 1947, with " The Green Hills of Earth ". That made him

16714-415: The war, her engagement having fallen through, she attended UCLA for doctoral studies in chemistry , and while there reconnected with Heinlein. As his second wife's alcoholism gradually spun out of control, Heinlein moved out and the couple filed for divorce . Heinlein's friendship with Virginia turned into a relationship and on October 21, 1948—shortly after the decree nisi came through—they married in

16851-467: Was Collowgullouric War ( Eta Carinae ). The Pirt-Kopan-noot people of western Victoria tell of Waa "Crow" falling in love with a queen, Gneeanggar "Wedge-tailed Eagle" (Sirius) and her six attendants (the Pleiades). His advances spurned, he hears that the women are foraging for grubs and so transforms himself into a grub. When the women dig him out, he changes into a giant and carries her off. The Kulin people know Canopus as Lo-an-tuka . Objects in

16988-475: Was a progressive liberal who had spent some time in the open sexuality climate of New York’s Jazz Age Greenwich Village . Heinlein believed that some level of socialism was inevitable and was already occurring in America. He was absorbing the social concepts of writers such as H.G. Wells and Upton Sinclair . He adopted many of the progressive social beliefs of his day and projected them forward. Heinlein

17125-551: Was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer , and naval officer . Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction, and was thus a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction . His published works, both fiction and non-fiction, express admiration for competence and emphasize the value of critical thinking . His plots often posed provocative situations which challenged conventional social mores . His work continues to have an influence on

17262-405: Was known as Suhel / ˈ s uː h ɛ l / in medieval times. Alternative spellings include Suhail, Souhail, Suhilon, Suheyl, Sohayl, Suhayil, Shoel, Sohil, Soheil, Sahil, Suhayeel, Sohayil, Sihel, and Sihil. An alternative name was Wazn "weight" or Haḍar "ground" , implying the anchor stone used by ship, rather than being related to its low position near the horizon. Hence comes its name in

17399-454: Was known as a solitary star that appeared in the east, prompting people to weep and chant. They also named it Atutahi , Aotahi or Atuatahi , "Stand Alone". Its solitary nature indicates it is a tapu star, as tapu people are often solitary. Its appearance at the beginning of the Maruaroa season foretells the coming winter; light rays to the south indicate a cold wet winter, and to

17536-546: Was known to the ancient Mesopotamians and represented the city of Eridu in the Three Stars Each Babylonian star catalogues and later MUL.APIN around 1100 BC. Canopus was called MUL.NUN by the Babylonians, which translates as "star of the city of Eridu". Eridu was the southernmost and one of the oldest Sumerian cities. From there is a good view to the south, so that about 6000 years ago due to

17673-728: Was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974. Four of his novels won Hugo Awards . In addition, fifty years after publication, seven of his works were awarded " Retro Hugos "—awards given retrospectively for works that were published before the Hugo Awards came into existence. In his fiction, Heinlein coined terms that have become part of the English language, including grok , waldo and speculative fiction , as well as popularizing existing terms like " TANSTAAFL ", " pay it forward ", and " space marine ". He also anticipated mechanical computer-aided design with "Drafting Dan" in his novel The Door into Summer and described

17810-466: Was only possible if the Earth was a relatively small sphere. English explorer Robert Hues brought Canopus to the attention of European observers in his 1592 work Tractatus de Globis , along with Achernar and Alpha Centauri , noting: "Now, therefore, there are but three Stars of the first magnitude that I could perceive in all those parts which are never seene here in England. The first of these

17947-565: Was previously proposed to be a member of the Scorpius–Centaurus association , however it is not located near the subgroups of that association, and has not been included as a Sco-Cen member in kinematic studies that used Hipparcos astrometric data. Canopus is not thought to be a member of any nearby young stellar groups. In 2014, astronomer Eric Mamajek reported that an extremely magnetically active M dwarf (having strong coronal X-ray emission), 1.16 degrees south of Canopus, appears to share

18084-491: Was published in September 2006. Four collections have been published posthumously. Heinlein began his career as a writer of stories for Astounding Science Fiction magazine, which was edited by John Campbell. The science fiction writer Frederik Pohl has described Heinlein as "that greatest of Campbell-era sf writers". Isaac Asimov said that, from the time of his first story, the science fiction world accepted that Heinlein

18221-624: Was running as a left-wing Democrat in a conservative district, and he never made it past the Democratic primary. While not destitute after the campaign—he had a small disability pension from the Navy—Heinlein turned to writing to pay off his mortgage. His first published story, " Life-Line ", was printed in the August 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction . Originally written for a contest, it sold to Astounding for significantly more than

18358-442: Was studied in the ultraviolet by an early astronomical satellite, Gemini XI in 1966. The UV spectra were considered to be consistent with an F0 supergiant having a temperature of 6,900 K , the accepted parameters for Canopus at the time. New Zealand-based astronomers John Hearnshaw and Krishna Desikachary examined the spectrum in greater detail, publishing their results in 1982. When luminosity classes were added to

18495-402: Was the best science fiction writer in existence, adding that he would hold this title through his lifetime. Alexei and Cory Panshin noted that Heinlein's impact was immediately felt. In 1940, the year after selling 'Life-Line' to Campbell, he wrote three short novels, four novelettes, and seven short stories. They went on to say that "No one ever dominated the science fiction field as Bob did in

18632-521: Was the guest of honor at the Worldcon in 1976 for the third time at MidAmeriCon in Kansas City, Missouri . At that Worldcon, Heinlein hosted a blood drive and donors' reception to thank all those who had helped save lives. Beginning in 1977, and including an episode while vacationing in Tahiti in early 1978, he had episodes of reversible neurologic dysfunction due to transient ischemic attacks . Over

18769-650: Was time to put their sheep with rams. In southern Africa, the Sotho, Tswana and Venda people called Canopus Naka or Nanga , “the Horn Star”, while the Zulu and Swazi called it inKhwenkwezi "Brilliant star". It appears in the predawn sky in the third week of May. According to the Venda, the first person to see Canopus would blow a phalaphala horn from the top of a hill, getting a cow for a reward. The Sotho chiefs also awarded

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