More Starshots: The location of Heaven

Using Starstrider (the software I mentioned in my previous post), I have found a G-class star with a really nice view. I’m choosing to believe (at least in jest) that it is the location of Heaven. The star in question is about four hundred light years from Earth, and is known to astronomers by such inspiring names as HIP 20740 and HD 28113. Here are links to its web pages on Simbad and Wikisky.

What do I like about this star (apart from the fact that it’s a yellow G-class like the sun)? Well, for one thing, the Pleiades are about 100 light years away and perfectly aligned with the gap in the Milky Way which contains the stars Deneb and Sadr. Exactly 180 degrees across the sky, the stars Betelgeuse and Rigel guard opposite sides of another gap in the Milky Way. I happen to think these alignments look cool, and would probably give rise to interesting mythologies (the only snag is that you generally wouldn’t be able to see both from a single location on a planet).