Castor

This is the painting that I used as the background for this blog.  Castor is not actually a single star as the ancients who named it thought.  It's actually three binary star systems, literally six stars whirling around each other.  When I read that I decided to paint the picture you see.  I doubt strongly that this image is in any way accurate of Castor's true appearance.  The individual component stars are probably never this close to each other but he image that came to mind was too great to resist and this is the painting that resulted.

The spaceship is a nod to my love of science fiction.  I placed it in the shadow of a handy planetoid thinking that this might be a place that a science crew studying the system might select to shelter themselves from the tremendous radiation such a place must have.

I love the idea that the stars are different colors.  The universe is vibrant with color but with the ever present pollution we on Earth have little appreciation for it.  Castor is a variable star due to the constant shifting of positions of its six component stars.