hip-20982

Its story

Near the northern celestial pole keeps watch a yellow star whose light crossed three hundred and seven years before arriving. It set out as Peter the Great was founding Saint Petersburg upon the frozen marsh, opening Russia to the Baltic. Its temperate surface, akin to the Sun’s, gives it a golden, mature tone: an evolved giant grown after consuming its central hydrogen. It belongs to the circumpolar court no northern observer ever sees set —always present, always a little cooler than the blue stars around it.