This year, I’m continuing my personal tradition of making stars on my birthday with numbers of points which increase each year. I’ve done this for years, and it’s based on a game I started when I turned three, and claimed the three stars of Orion’s belt as my personal property, on the grounds that they were obviously put in the sky for my benefit. Most recently, a year ago, when I turned 47, I posted a 47-pointed star on this blog.

I’m turning 48 today, so here are a couple of different colorings of 48-pointed stars containing segments through the center, {6/2} compound-triangle stars, and {8/3) star octagons, made possible by the fact that 48 = (6)(8).

Of course, I am turning 48 on my 49th birthday (and if that makes no sense to you, here’s the explanation), so this year I also made 49-pointed stars. They are based on 49 being the square of seven, and so contain seven each of the two types of star heptagram possible, in two different colors. For this star, also, I made two versions.