/sunstars in Western Europe pt. 2

“Sunstar”. It’s an interesting term. Isn’t the sun a star? Sure, a 1.4 million kilometers in diameter glowing hot ball of Hydrogen and Helium from a vantage point 150 million kilometers away called the Earth, or a mid-sized white dot from a vantage point 26660 light years away taking 230 million years to revolve around the Milky Way or a faint white blob holding other microscopic blobs together on its gravity as observed from the nearest stellar neighbor, the Alpha Centauri triple star system’s red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, 4.24 light-years away. But still a star. And it’s round.

And how do we draw stars since we were kids? With 5 pointed lines. And why did we draw them like that? Because our eyes actually see stars as having points. The fibers that make up our eye lenses meet at certain points, resulting in very small structural imperfections called suture lines. Light, upon passing through the lens, interacts with these lines and consequently leaves a very distinct impression of a star, making it look like a pointy, five-armed toy. Don’t believe it? Squint your eyes and look at a light source nearby.

So, round sun + pointed star = Sunstar? Or is there a deeper reason for it?