Articles
Barbuzano, J. “Alpha Centauri Fever.” Sky & Telescope (April 2019): 34. On the history and current observations of the nearby triple star system.
Cooper, K. “Meet the Neighbors: The Nearest Stars.” Sky & Telescope (January 2019): 34. How the RECONS Project finds the nearest stars and their distances.
Croswell, K. “The First White Dwarf.” Sky & Telescope (December 2022): 28. Was 40 Eridani B discovered before Sirius B?
Davis, J. “Measuring the Stars.” Sky & Telescope (October 1991): 361. The article explains direct measurements of stellar diameters.
Dorminey, B. “Stellar Neighbors Close-up.” Astronomy (July 2020): 30. On the nearest stars and what we can learn from them.
Dorminey, B. “Why Does the Universe Make So Many Small Stars.” Astronomy (February 2019): 20. Discussion of the initial mass function for stars and why low-mass stars are so abundant.
French, L. “Explaining Algol.” Sky & Telescope (February 2019): 36. A history of how we learned it was a binary star system. Kane, P. “Binary Orbits Explored.” Sky & Telescope (May 2019): 22. Showing the orbits of nine well-known binary stars.
McAllister, H. “Twenty Years of Seeing Double.” Sky & Telescope (November 1996): 28. An update on modern studies of binary stars.
Ornes, S. “Explore the 10 Nearest Stars.” Astronomy (June 2023): 36. On what the closest star systems are like.
Pasachoff, J. “The H–R Diagram’s 100th Anniversary.” Sky & Telescope (June 2014): 32.
Websites
Algol: The Demon Star: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/algol-the-demon-star/. A brief introduction to the mythology and astronomy of this star.
Astronomers Weigh Sirius B: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2005/news-2005-36.html. How the Hubble Space Telescope was used to image and study the white dwarf.
Eclipsing Binary Observing Guide: https://britastro.org/vss/EBHandbook11.pdf. A PDF booklet from the British Astronomical Association for how to find and monitor these stars.
Eclipsing Binary Stars: http://www.midnightkite.com/index.aspx?URL=Binary. Dan Bruton at Austin State University has created this collection of animations, articles, and links showing how astronomers use eclipsing binary light curves.
Explore the Ten Nearest Stars: https://www.astronomy.com/science/explore-the-10-nearest-stars/. A guided tour from Astronomy magazine.
Henry Norris Russell: https://www.princetonianamuseum.org/artifact/26a23799-3c9c-4660-81fa-e9931dc76b1b (a brief life sketch at the Princeton University museum) and https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/russell-henry-n.pdf (a biographical memoir by Harlow Shapley).
Hertzsprung–Russell Diagram: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr1/en/proj/advanced/hr/. This site from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey introduces the H–R diagram and gives you information for making your own. You can go step by step by using the menu at the left. Note that in the project instructions, the word “here” is a link and takes you to the data you need.
Stars of the Week: http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/sowlist.html. Astronomer James Kaler does “biographical summaries” of famous stars—not the Hollywood type, but ones in the real sky.
Videos
Algol: The Demon Star: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI2syOJG-wo. A computer simulation from the 1970s that still works, explaining why Algol varies and what such binary stars help astronomers learn (7:33).
Constructing a Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram for a Globular Star Cluster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWQslu4S5eQ. Nice discussion of making the diagram for Omega Centauri, with animation (1:33).
Eclipsing Binary Stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmzmNDzUHEk. A series of demonstrations from the University of Nebraska of different kinds of eclipsing binary stars and the light curves we would observe from them (4:49).
How Big Is a Star: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/esocast95a/. Brief animation showing the relative size of the Sun compared to planets, and then of stars of different diameters compared to the Sun (2:08).
The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfbs0xydBWE. Computer professional David Butler provides a basic introduction, with graphics, showing how the diagram is put together (2:01).
The Nearest Stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg3noqtm0L0. An excerpt from TV’s The Big Bang Theory, where Sheldon goes down the apartment-building stairs while reciting the closest stars in order (1:07).
WISE Mission Surveys Nearby Stars and Brown Dwarfs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTUyHeQaIPM. Astronomer Davy Kirkpatrick narrates a brief video about how the WISE infrared telescope is finding brown dwarfs among the stars in our immediate neighborhood (1:21).