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Egyptians, Dogons, and Sirius: a summary
Bernard Ortiz de Montellano April 12, 1995

Claim
Dogons knew existence and description of Sirius B invisible to naked eye.

Evidence
The primary source for Adams' information is really Robert Temple's The Sirius Mystery which argues that amphibious beings from a superior civilization in the Sirius system taught astronomy to the Dogon. Temple's sole source is one informant in long term conversation with Marcel Griaule, but Van Beek and other anthropologists say the Dogon do not have the Sirius B legend, although Sirius A itself is an important part of the mythology.

Claim
Dogons also describe a third member companion of Sirius, and that this has been confirmed by astronomers.

Evidence
the X-ray emiting dwarf star seen near Sirius is several hundred light years away from Sirius.

Claim
Dogons knew of Sirius B 700 years ago.

Evidence
The only evidence is a mask (without any reference) that refers to Sirius, but says nothing whatever about Sirius B. Actually the oldest masks are 200 years old.

Claim
That Dogons have dark eyes and could have seen Sirius B because of that. Adams claims light-colored eyes can only see up to 6.5 magnitude, but dark -colored eyes can see up to 8.1 (with no reference).

Evidence
Specially trained people under optimal conditions can see 7.8. However, Sirius B is 8.7 which is 2 1/2 times dimmer because the scale is logarithmic. The glare due to Sirius A requires the use of at least a 5-inch telescope to see Sirius B at its maximum separation; at its closest approach, about half the time, a minimum of a 100-inch telescope is needed (Schaefer 1991, 1995). Even if Sirius B were bright enough to be seen, it could not be distinguished by a naked eye because it is too close to Sirius A. The average separation between Sirius A and B is 9.5 seconds of arc (Allen 1973: 240) with a maximum separation of 11 seconds. However, a person with 20/20 vision can only distinguish two points of light that are at least 42 seconds apart, i.e. four times the separation of Sirius A and B (Schaefer 1995).

Claim
Adams claims that the Egyptians knew Sirius B because the Russians found a perfectly spherical lens and two of these could have been put together to make a telescope.

Evidence
The evidence for this discovery very weak, ultimately an obscure Italian publication in 1969, which also refers to alien visitors. It is physically impossible to make a telescope from a spherical lens because the focal length would be much too short. The image would greatly distorted by spherical and chromatic aberration. Due to distortion the image would be worse than that obtained with the naked eye.

Claim
The pointed image the Dogon draw of the heliacal rising of Sirius closely resembles a telescopic photograph of Sirius.

Evidence
The points in the astronomic picture are artifacts due to the use of a reflecting telescope.

Claim
The Dogon and the Egyptians detected Sirius B because their melanin acted similarly to an infrared telescope.

Evidence
This proposal by Afrocentrist Frances Welsing has no evidence whatever. In any case, black people have no more brain melanin than white people.

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