{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_68391/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_68391","id":"gutenberg_68391","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68391","summary":null,"tags":["Astronomy -- Popular works","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Science - Earth/Agricultural/Farming"],"text":"ROUND THE YEAR\n  WITH THE STARS\n\n  THE CHIEF BEAUTIES OF\n  THE STARRY HEAVENS AS\n  SEEN WITH THE NAKED EYE\n\n  BY\n\n  GARRETT P. SERVISS\n\n  AUTHOR OF\n  \u201cASTRONOMY WITH THE NAKED EYE\u201d\n  \u201cCURIOSITIES OF THE SKY\u201d ETC.\n\n  WITH MAPS SHOWING THE ASPECT OF\n  THE SKY IN EACH OF THE FOUR SEASONS\n  AND CHARTS REVEALING THE OUTLINES\n  OF THE CONSTELLATIONS AND THE\n  DESIGNATIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL STARS\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n  NEW YORK AND LONDON\n\n  HARPER _&_ BROTHERS PUBLISHERS\n  MCMX\n\n\n\n\n  Copyright, 1910, by HARPER & BROTHERS\n\n  Published September, 1910.\n\n  _Printed in the United States of America_\n\n\n\n\n  CONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAP.                                             PAGE\n\n  PREFACE                                              7\n\n  INTRODUCTION                                         9\n\n  I. THE EVENING SKY AT THE VERNAL EQUINOX            21\n\n  II. THE EVENING SKY AT THE SUMMER SOLSTICE          50\n\n  III. THE EVENING SKY AT THE AUTUMNAL EQUINOX        71\n\n  IV. THE EVENING SKY AT THE WINTER SOLSTICE          93\n\n  V. THE PLANETS                                     118\n\n  APPENDIX                                           129\n\n  PRONUNCIATION OF STAR AND CONSTELLATION NAMES      141\n\n  INDEX                                              143\n\n\n\n\n  LIST OF CHARTS\n\n\n                                                    PAGE\n\n  CHART I. THE VERNAL EVENING SKY                     23\n\n  CHART II. THE SUMMER EVENING SKY                    51\n\n  CHART III. THE AUTUMN EVENING SKY                   73\n\n  CHART IV. THE WINTER EVENING SKY                    95\n\n  CHART V. THE FIRST SIX HOURS FROM THE VERNAL\n  EQUINOX                                            134\n\n  CHART VI. FROM VI H. TO XII H. FROM THE VERNAL\n  EQUINOX                                            135\n\n  CHART VII. FROM XII H. TO XVIII H. FROM THE VERNAL\n  EQUINOX                                            136\n\n  CHART VIII. FROM XVIII H. TO XXIV H. FROM THE\n  VERNAL EQUINOX                                     137\n\n  CHART IX. POLAR CONSTELLATIONS FROM VI H. TO\n  XVIII H.                                           138\n\n  CHART X. POLAR CONSTELLATIONS FROM XVIII H. TO\n  VI H.                                              139\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThis book represents an attempt to cultivate the love of the stars, and\nto offer a guiding hand to all those who are willing to believe that\nsome of the most exquisite joys of life are to be found, like scattered\nand unregarded gems, waiting to be picked up by any chance wayfarer\nwho, without special knowledge, or optical aids, or mathematical\nattainments, or any of the paraphernalia or advantages of the\nprofessional astronomer, will simply turn his eyes to the sky and open\nhis mind to its plain teachings and its supernal inspirations.\n\nThe writer\u2019s only real excuse for appearing again in this particular\nfield is that he has never yet finished a book, and seen it go forth,\nwithout feeling that he had overlooked, or cast aside, or of necessity\nomitted a multitude of things quite as interesting and important as\nany he had touched upon. Accordingly, he yields once more to the lure\nof this inexhaustible and illimitable subject, and strives again to\nfind expression for the thoughts which it continually awakens, and\nto exhibit, however imperfectly, the endless procession of marvels\nwhich stream before him who knows and loves the stars like a dazzling\n_rivi\u00e8re_ of brilliants.\n\nThis book in no way duplicates another work of the same hand,\n_Astronomy with the Naked Eye_. In _that_ the effort was to revive\nthe romance of the constellations by retelling their fascinating\nhistory, their mythology, their immemorial legends and traditions, and\nindicating their poetic background in the presence of the imaginary\nfigures which, \u201cfrom times of which the memory of man runneth not to\nthe contrary,\u201d have been associated with them; in _this_ the writer\ntries to draw the reader into more intimate relations with the stars\nby dwelling upon their individual peculiarities and beauties, and the\nimpressions which either singly or in constellated groups they make\nupon the mind of the beholder. Surely there is not another field of\nhuman contemplation so wondrously rich as astronomy! It is so easy\nto reach, so responsive to every mood, so stimulating, uplifting,\nabstracting, and infinitely consoling. Everybody may not be a chemist,\na geologist, a mathematician, but everybody may be and ought to be,\nin a modest, personal way, an astronomer, for star-gazing is a great\nmedicine of the soul. There is the writer\u2019s text.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThe charts illustrating this book have been drawn by the writer\nespecially to meet the needs of beginners--of those who, feeling what\na void in their intellectual life ignorance of the stars has created,\nwould now fill that void, and thus round out their spiritual being with\nsome knowledge of Nature on her most majestic and yet most beautiful\nand winning side.\n\nOn account of the necessarily diminutive scale of the charts,\neverything has been omitted from them which did not seem essential.\nBut for the purpose in view they gain by this process of exclusion,\nfor with more details they would have been confusing. It is the\nbroad, general aspect of the sky with which the beginner must first\nfamiliarize himself. At the start the heavens appear to him to be\nfilled with an innumerable multitude of scintillating sparks, scattered\neverywhere in disorder. But with a little attention he perceives\nthat there is discipline in this host, and immediately the discovery\ngives him pleasure and awakens his admiration, as the perception of\norder always does. The great leaders of the firmament come forth,\nunmistakable, plainly recognizable, and thereupon the rank and\nfile fall into their places. Then the ineffable beauty of the whole\nassemblage bursts like a revelation upon the mind. This revelation\nis not for the dull in spirit, but he who has once had it becomes\nhenceforth, and even in spite of previous prejudice or indifference, a\ndevotee of the stars, with a zeal flaming brighter with every swing of\nthe pendulum of his years.\n\nIn the four circular charts representing the aspect of the heavens\nrespectively at the Vernal Equinox, the Summer Solstice, the Autumnal\nEquinox, and the Winter Solstice, few stars fainter than the fourth\nmagnitude are included, and not all even of that magnitude, because the\nsole purpose is to enable the beginner to recognize the constellations\nby their characteristic groupings of stars and their relative\nsituations in the sky. The insuperable difficulty is to picture the\n_hemispherical_ sky on a _flat_ page. A certain amount of distortion\ncannot be avoided, and the reader\u2019s imagination must supply the effect\nof perspective. He must always remember that the centre of the chart\nstands for the middle of the sky _overhead_, and that the circular\nboundary represents the full round of the horizon, from east through\nsouth, west, and north, to east again. If he is comparing the chart\nwith the sky while facing south, he should hold the chart upright as\nit is printed in the book; if he makes the comparison while facing\nnorth, he should turn the chart upside down. If he lies on his back\nwith his head to the north (and in no other way can one get so vast an\nimpression of the starry dome), and holds the chart over his head, it\nwill represent the entire vault of the firmament.\n\nThe names of the constellations will be found on the charts, and\nalso the individual names of the most celebrated stars, but the\nconstellation boundaries are not shown, because, in nine cases out\nof ten, the precise limits of a constellation are not important for\nthe beginner to know, and to search for them would simply lead to\nconfusion. As he progresses in his knowledge of the sky any uncertainty\nabout the constellation to which particular stars belong can be settled\nby consulting the six charts, drawn to a larger scale, at the end of\nthe book. On _these_ charts more of the small stars are shown, and in\naddition there will be found the Greek letters which astronomers attach\nto the principal stars of each constellation for the sake of ready\nidentification. On these charts, too, the constellation boundaries\nwill be seen, indicated by dotted lines. The tracing of these lines is\nmore or less a matter of arbitrary choice. There are no international\nboundary disputes among the heavenly powers, and the frontier lines\nmay run anywhere, provided only that they do not include in one\nconstellation any stars which by common usage, or prescription, belong\nto another. The constellations have been reshaped many times in the\npast. The \u201cgeography of the heavens\u201d has known as many changes as that\nof the earth, the ambition of the old astronomers being sometimes as\ninsatiable as that of founders of terrestrial kingdoms and empires.\nAbout three centuries ago the starry sky was \u201cChristianized,\u201d St.\nMatthew, St. Peter, St. John, St. Joseph, St. Michael, St. Stephen,\nSt. Gabriel, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Katharine, together with Noah,\nAaron, Job, and Eve, taking the places of the heathen gods, goddesses,\nand heroes in the sky, while Saturn became Adam, Jupiter Moses, Mars\nJoshua, Mercury Elias, Venus St. John Baptist (!), the Moon the Virgin\nMary, and the Sun Christ (see Appendix). It is not an unheard-of\nthing in uranography (\u201cdescription of the heavens\u201d; analogue to\ngeography) for a star, or a group of stars, to change allegiance, or\neven to belong to two constellations at the same time. The bright star\nAlpheratz is still an example of this double nationality, for, although\nit shines on the head of Andromeda and is her jewel _par excellence_,\nyet her neighbor Pegasus also lays claim to the star, and uranographers\nso far admit the justice of his claim that they call Alpheratz,\naccording to circumstances, either Alpha (\u03b1) Andromed\u00e6 or Delta (\u03b4)\nPegasi.\n\nFor many of their purposes astronomers find no use for the\nconstellations, preferring to identify the stars by their position in\nright ascension and declination (equivalent to longitude and latitude),\nand in the great modern _Durchmusterungs_, or star catalogues, this\nplan is universally followed. Still, the constellations afford a very\nconvenient classification of the stars, and probably they will never\nbe abandoned even by professional astronomers; while from another\nstandpoint they never can be abandoned, because they are among the\nmost ancient and precious of human documents, valuable for history and\nfor the understanding of mythology, and resistlessly charming in their\npoetic associations.\n\nBut, to return to the description of the charts, the reader should be\ninformed as to the meaning of the lines shown upon them, and of the\nindications found round their borders. In the four circular charts\nthe closed curve crossing the sky from right to left represents the\nequator of the heavens, which is directly over the equator of the\nearth; the vertical line through the centre shows the meridian, or\nnorth and south line, which, so to speak, follows the observer wherever\nhe may go, occupying the same place in the sky, _at the same hour of\nlocal time_, in all longitudes; and the dotted curve is the ecliptic,\nor the apparent annual path of the sun through the sky. The crossing\npoints of the equator and the ecliptic are respectively the Vernal and\nthe Autumnal Equinox, where the sun is at the two dates in the year\nwhen day and night are of equal length; and the farthest northern and\nsouthern points of the ecliptic are respectively the Summer and the\nWinter Solstice, where the sun is at the times of the longest and the\nshortest days in our hemisphere. These four fundamental points are all\nshown on the charts. Around the border the hours of right ascension are\nindicated by Roman numerals. Each hour corresponds to 15\u00b0 of space, or\none twenty-fourth of a circle of the sphere. The hours begin at the\nVernal Equinox, which is graphically described as the \u201cGreenwich of the\nSky.\u201d\n\nIn the larger-scale charts at the end of the book the hours of right\nascension are indicated at the bottom, and the degrees of north and\nsouth declination (the sign + standing for north and - for south) are\nshown at the side. In both cases the declination is reckoned from\nthe equator. The four oblong charts of this series, taken together,\nrepresent the entire circuit of sky between 40\u00b0 north and 40\u00b0 south\ndeclination, and the two semicircular charts, taken together, show the\nstars within 50\u00b0 of the north pole. Thus the entire set of six charts\nexhibits the complete dome of the heavens from the north pole to 40\u00b0\nsouth declination. In passing from the oblong to the semicircular\ncharts it is only necessary to bring the hours of right ascension into\naccord. In the semicircular charts the hours will be found round the\ncurved borders.\n\nEach of the four circular charts in the body of the book represents the\naspect of the _evening_ sky at one of the equinoctial or solstitial\nepochs. To be more precise, these charts show the sky as it appears,\nat about the latitude of New York, at 10 P.M., on, respectively, March\n20th (the Vernal Equinox), June 21st (the Summer Solstice), September\n23d (the Autumnal Equinox), and December 22d (the Winter Solstice).\n\nBut the reader must not think that it is necessary to confine himself\nto the exact latitude, date, or hour just mentioned. Undoubtedly it\nwould be better for the beginner to do that approximately, but it is\nnot essential. The effect of a change of latitude is, perhaps, the\nleast important. If the observer is farther south than about 40\u00b0 north\nlatitude, the southern stars will appear higher in the sky than they\nare shown in the charts, and some of the stars close to the northern\nhorizon will sink from view. If, on the other hand, he is farther north\n(as in Canada or Northern Europe), the northern stars will appear\nhigher, and some of those near the southern horizon will be invisible.\nBut if he confines his attention to the stars and constellations\nrepresented in the central parts of the charts (which he should, in any\ncase, do for other reasons), the effect of the shift due to difference\nof latitude will not be found very serious.\n\nAs to the effects of a departure from the hours and dates for which the\ncharts are drawn, they, too, can readily be allowed for. Suppose that,\nwithout changing the date, the reader makes his observations an hour\nearlier than that given, say at 9 P.M., March 20th. Then he will find\nthat some of the eastern stars, seen along the left-hand edge of the\nchart when it is held upright, have not yet come into view above the\nhorizon, while other stars, not seen on the chart drawn for that date,\nare visible above the horizon in the west. To the stars thus carried\nout of, or brought into, view he should pay no attention; he will find\nthem again on other charts when they are better placed for observation.\n\nNext, suppose that without changing the hour of observation he changes\nthe date, and instead of observing on the 20th of March he observes\non the 5th. Then he will notice precisely the same difference that\nwas manifest when his observation was made an hour too early on March\n20th--_i. e._, some of the eastern stars on the chart will not yet have\nrisen, and other stars, not on that particular chart, will be visible\nin the west. Although at first all this may be a little confusing to\nthe beginner, he will soon find that he can make due allowance for the\nchanges of aspect. The whole matter becomes very simple when it is\nremembered that the heavens have a double revolution toward the west;\none of these revolutions, due to the earth\u2019s rotation on its axis,\nbeing effected in twenty-four hours, and the other, due to the earth\u2019s\nrevolution round the sun, requiring an entire year. One hour of the\ndaily revolution (represented by an hour of right ascension) produces\nthe same effect on the position of the stars as two weeks of the annual\nrevolution; or two hours of the first correspond to one month of the\nsecond.\n\nIf the observations are made at a later date or a later hour than\nthose indicated on the chart, the changes will occur in the reverse\norder--_i. e._, western stars will have disappeared and eastern stars\nwill have come up into view.\n\nI particularly wish to impress upon the beginner the needlessness of\nbeing troubled about these discrepancies. He can avoid all possibility\nof perplexity by fitting his observations to the exact times of\nthe charts. As I have already said, a difference of a few degrees\nin his latitude on the earth may be disregarded. The charts, with a\nslight allowance for the shift of position of the extreme northern\nand southern stars, are available for any of the middle latitudes of\nthe northern hemisphere. And if the effects of a change of hour or\ndate prove in the least confusing, the beginner has only to await the\ngiven date and the given hour, and all will be clear. Then, as soon as\nhe has become familiar with a few of the leading constellations, the\nothers, which in themselves are not so easily recognizable, will fall\ninto their proper places, after which there can be no possibility of\nconfusion. In fact, much less effort is required to become familiar\nwith the aspect of the starry sky than is demanded for a similar\nacquaintance with the fundamental data of botany, mineralogy, geology,\nor any other of the observational branches of natural science.\n\nIt was at first the intention to indicate the course of the Milky Way\non the circular charts by dotted outlines, but this was abandoned in\nview of the restricted space. Any one can easily trace the meanderings\nand branchings of this starry scarf, the contemplation of which carries\nthe mind to greater heights of intellectual perspective than any other\nphenomenon of the world of matter. If the reader has the good-fortune\nto be situated where artificial lights do not interfere with the\nsplendor of the heavens, he can observe the course of the Milky\nWay on any clear night; and, if he possesses skill in delineation,\nhe may make charts of it and its offshoots which will be of real\nvalue. Better still if he has the means of photographing it. Here is\na non-mathematical field of astronomy which is ripe for the harvest,\nand in which the laborers are few. The Milky Way is so full of wonders\nthat centuries of observation and study cannot exhaust them. There is\nnothing more impressive than to see how it often follows curves of\nlucid stars as if some mysterious attraction were drawing it toward\nthem; and yet it itself consists of stars.\n\nA few more words of practical advice to the beginner. Let him, at\nfirst, confine himself to the bright and conspicuous stars and the\nstriking groups shown in the charts, assigning each to its proper\nconstellation. When he has become familiar with these in their\nbroadest aspects, he can turn to the charts at the end of the book and\nfamiliarize himself with the constellation boundaries. After that, if\nhe wishes to go further, as he almost certainly will, he can obtain a\nlarge star atlas, furnish himself with a telescope, and open up a new\nside of his life which will make him rejoice to be, for a few short\nyears, a dweller on a planet inhabited by beings intelligent enough\nto lift their eyes above the horizon and to feed their minds with the\ninspirations of the universe.\n\nYet another thing, which may be a novelty to many, and which is\nsure to afford unexpected pleasure--when you have fairly learned\nthe constellations, take a mirror and study them by reflection.\nThis is a counsel of intimacy. Orion will seem less remote and more\ncomprehensible when his living image is enclosed in a frame, which\nyou can hold on your lap like an album. There is something startling\nin the sight of the starry heavens under your feet. I once enjoyed\nthe sensation in perfection while stalking deer in a boat at midnight\non the placid bosom of a forest pond. The water was as motionless as\nso many acres of black glass, and I forgot to look for the deer, in\nthe shaft of light from the hooded \u201cflare\u201d at the bow, when we seemed\nto be drifting out into an ocean of ether, in the middle of the sky,\nwith stars below as well as stars above. When we silently crossed the\npond, and got far from the shores, the sensation was overpowering;\nit took one\u2019s breath away. We drifted right over the Milky Way, and\nVega, Altair, and the \u201cNorthern Cross\u201d gleamed beneath the keel. Be\nsure that your mirror is freshly silvered and clean, and remember the\nreversals of position which all reflections produce. If you hold the\nmirror before you inclined downward, the position of objects in the sky\nwill be reversed top for bottom; if you hold it inclined upward, so as\nto see objects behind your head, they will be reversed right for left.\nWith these precautions you will find the mirror a great convenience\nfor studying constellations which are nearly overhead. It is the\nprinciple of the \u201cdiagonal prism\u201d employed with telescopes, and of the\nhand-mirrors used by many visitors at the Vatican Palace to view with\ncomfort the ceiling pictures of Michael Angelo in the Sistine Chapel.\nThus the sky becomes an atlas, and you can study its living charts at\nleisure.\n\n\n\n\nROUND THE YEAR WITH THE STARS\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nTHE EVENING SKY AT THE VERNAL EQUINOX\n\n\nThe year has its morning no less unmistakable in its characteristic\nfeatures than the dawn of the day. The earth and all of its inhabitants\nfeel the subtle influences of the dawning year, and Nature awakes\nat their touch. This annual morning comes when the sun transits the\nequator, moving north, at the beginning of his long summer tour, about\nthe 20th of March. This is the epoch of the Vernal Equinox, when the\nsprings of life begin, once more, to flow. Then the sun truly rises\non the northern hemisphere. Then the mighty world of the north, which\nProvidence has made the chief abode of vital organisms on this planet,\nrouses itself and shakes off the apathy of winter, and men, animals,\nand plants, each after their manner, renew their activities, and in\nmany cases their very existence. This annual reawakening is one of\nthe profoundest phenomena of nature, and there are secrets in it which\nscience has not yet penetrated.\n\nBliss Carman has beautifully pictured the terrestrial charms of the\nvernal season in his \u201cSpring\u2019s Saraband\u201d:\n\n  \u201cOver the hills of April,\n    With soft winds hand in hand,\n  Impassionate and dreamy-eyed\n    Spring leads her saraband.\n  Her garments float and gather\n    And swirl along the plain,\n  Her headgear is the golden sun,\n    Her cloak the silver rain.\u201d\n\nBut why do not the poets see and express the hyperphysical charm of\nthe spring evenings? When the light of the vernal day has faded the\nstars come forth, and in the quality of their shining reduplicate and\nheighten the impressions left by the quickening landscapes. More than\nhalf is lost if this be missed. But perhaps this side of nature is too\ntranscendent even for poetry. One can behold but not tell it. Emerson\nhas come nearest to its expression, and he puts it in prose:\n\n \u201cThe grass grows, the buds burst, the meadow is spotted with fire and\n gold in the tint of the flowers. The air is full of birds, and sweet\n with the breath of the pine, the balm-of-Gilead, and the new hay.\n _Night brings no gloom to the heart with its welcome shade._ Through\n the transparent darkness the stars pour their almost spiritual rays.\n Man under them seems a young child, and his huge globe a toy. The cool\n night bathes the world as with a river, and prepares his eyes again\n for the crimson dawn.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: CHART I--THE VERNAL EVENING SKY]\n\nThere was not only poetic but logical fitness in the old English\ncustom, abandoned since 1751, of dating the opening of the year from\nthe last week of March. How can the real birth of the year be imagined\nto occur when all nature is still deep in slumber under the January\nsnows? The seasons are manifestly the children of the sun, waxing and\nwaning with his strength, and surely that one should be reckoned the\neldest which is the first birth of his vivific springtime rays. It\nseems remarkable that the beginning of the year in ancient times, when\nmen felt more keenly than we do now the symbolism of natural phenomena,\nwas not more frequently fixed at, or near, the Vernal Equinox, and I\nsuspect some defect in our information on this subject. In Attica,\nGeorge Cornewell Lewis tells us, the year began at the Summer Solstice.\nBut this was to make the second of the sun\u2019s seasonal offspring the\nsenior, thus ignoring the just claim of the true heir, the season\nof buds. In Sparta and Macedonia, according to the same authority,\nthe year began with the Autumnal Equinox, which was still worse, for\nin summer the year is at the zenith of its life, while in autumn it\nis already stumbling toward the tomb. In B\u0153otia, at Delphi, and in\nBithynia they contradicted nature more decidedly, as we do to-day, by\nmaking the year begin at the Winter Solstice, when the chilled world\nis yet asleep. The Romans adopted this plan eventually, but it is\ninteresting to observe that they had an older custom of beginning the\nyear in March, which many cherished in their domestic life as well\nas for some legal purposes, after the lawful opening of the year had\nbeen fixed on the 1st of January. And finally _we_ have perpetuated\nthe illogical system of absolutely reversing nature\u2019s rule in the\nsuccession of the seasons by making the year begin about nine days\nafter the Winter Solstice. But in spite of calendars and laws nature\nprevails, and everybody instinctively feels that the true beginning\nof the year is in the season when the currents of life resume their\nyouthful flow. At any rate, however it may be with strictly terrestrial\naffairs, that is the time when the call of the stars becomes the most\ninsistent and irresistible. Accordingly the epoch of the Vernal Equinox\nis chosen for our opening chapter. But the reader at the commencement\nof his star-gazing is not confined to this season; he can begin at any\ntime convenient to him.\n\nTo avoid misapprehension it is important to point out that our concern\nis not with that half of the heavens which the sun illumines when he\ncrosses the equator, coming north, at the Vernal Equinox, but with\nthe diametrically opposite half, where in countless multitudes shine\nhis fellow suns--his peers, his inferiors, and his superiors--turning\nphysical night into intellectual day. Accordingly, in Chart I we see\nnot that part of the sky which contains the point called the Vernal\nEquinox, but the opposite part, where the sun pursues his course when\nhe is declining from the Summer Solstice toward the Autumnal Equinox.\nThe chart represents the appearance of the sky at 10 P.M. on the 20th\nof March (see Introduction). It also represents the sky as it appears\nabout 11.30 P.M. at the beginning of March, about 9 P.M. the first week\nof April, and 8 P.M. about April 20th.\n\nLet us, then, near one of these dates and hours, go out-of-doors and\ntransport ourselves to the universe. Why does not everybody feel the\nthrill that comes to the astronomer when, with eager expectation,\nhe watches the fading sunset light, the slow withdrawal of the vast\ncurtain of illuminated air which for twelve hours has hidden the\nprodigious marvel of the spangled heavens, and the first peering\nforth of the great stars? I believe that everybody _does_ feel it\nwhen he gives himself the opportunity and abandons his mind to its\nown reflections--but so few embrace the opportunity or encourage the\nreflections!\n\nSelect, if possible, a high place, where the eyes can range round the\nwhole horizon unobstructed. Then try to seize the entire view at once,\nas one glances for the first time at the map of a new country. Get\nthe _ensemble_ by sweeping all around the sky, not pausing to note\ndetails, but catching at a glance the location of the brighter stars\nand those that form striking groups. Note where the Milky Way runs, a\nfaint, silvery zone at this season, arched across the western half of\nthe firmament, hanging like starry gossamers in places, brilliant in\nthe northwest, but becoming fainter as it dips toward the southwestern\nhorizon--a mere anticipation of its summer splendor, hiding its light\nand fading away as it approaches the imperial presence of Sirius.\nNotice the great hexagon of first magnitude stars that surrounds Orion\nin the west--Sirius, Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Castor and Pollux, and\nProcyon marking the angles, and Betelgeuse glittering not far from the\ncentre of the figure. Observe Regulus with the \u201cSickle\u201d of Leo on the\nmeridian. Look for the glimmer of the \u201cBeehive\u201d in Cancer, between\nGemini and Leo, and for the pentangular head of Hydra beneath it. Still\nlower you will see the reddish gleam of the starry serpent\u2019s heart,\nCor Hydr\u00e6, or Alphard, and then, running eastward, and dipping ever\nnearer the horizon, the long, winding line of his stars passing under\nthe overset cup of Crater and the quadrilateral of Corvus, the \u201cCrow,\u201d\nuntil they disappear, unended, in the southeast, for from mid-heaven to\nthe horizon there is not space enough to display all of these beautiful\ncoils, which take a kind of life as you watch them.\n\nAway over in the east, close to the ecliptic, you will see Virgo with\nher diamond, Spica, flashing in her hand. You are now facing east;\nto your left, then, north of Spica, glows great Arcturus, with his\nattendants shaping the figure of Bo\u00f6tes. Of Arcturus, a star that among\na million finds no rival, we shall speak more particularly elsewhere.\nFarther to the left, beyond Bo\u00f6tes, shines the exquisite \u201cNorthern\nCrown,\u201d Corona Borealis. That too will claim attention in a later\nchapter. The square of Hercules is just above the horizon below the\nCrown in the northeast, and to its left, as you face north, is seen\nthe diamond-shaped head of Draco, the \u201cGreat Dragon\u201d that Athena\nwas fabled to have entangled with the axis of the world. His stars\nwind upward between the \u201cDippers\u201d--the \u201cLittle Dipper,\u201d which has the\nPolestar at the end of its handle, and the \u201cGreat Dipper,\u201d which, brim\ndownward, shines east of the meridian, almost as high as the zenith, if\nyou are as far north as 40\u00b0 or more. The handle of the \u201cGreat Dipper\u201d\nis the tail of Ursa Major, who treads lumberingly about the pole, with\nhis back downward, his head out-thrust west of the meridian, and his\nfeet, marked by three striking pairs of stars, up in the middle of the\nsky. On the meridian south of Ursa Major stands the \u201cSickle\u201d of Leo\nalready mentioned. Away round in the northwest, beyond Capella, are\nPerseus and Cassiopeia, immersed in the Milky Way.\n\nHaving fixed the location and general appearance of all these\nconstellations in the mind, you are prepared to study them, and their\nstars, in more detail. Let us begin in the east. For some occult reason\nthe rising stars always seem more attractive than those that are near\nsetting. In the east, then, the eye is at once drawn to the beautiful\nSpica, which the impassive, immemorial Virgo wears as her only\nornament. It is a fascinating star with its pure white rays, dashed\nwith swift gleams of exquisite color as the atmospheric waves roll over\nit. There is not another equal to it in the impression of purity which\nit gives. We may imagine that some dim sense of this immaculate quality\nin the light of Spica led to the naming of the constellation the\n\u201cVirgin,\u201d thus called by nearly all peoples, each in its own language:\n\u03a0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b8\u03ad\u03c5\u03bf\u03c2, K\u00f3\u03c1\u03b7, _Puella_, _Kauni_, _She-Sang-Neu_, _Pucella_, _Vi\u00e8rge_,\n_M\u00e6den_, _Jungfrau_, _Virgine_--all, ancient and modern, Greek, Roman,\nIndian, Chinese, Norman, French, Anglo-Saxon, German, Italian, and\nEnglish worshipping together at this shrine of ideal purity. If the\nAssyrians made her the wife of Bel that was hardly a disparagement, for\nBel was the sun. So, too, the identification of Virgo with the Greek\nPersephone, the Roman Ceres, and the Jewish Bethula, all goddesses\nconcerned with the harvest and the fertility of the land, in no way\ndetracted from her virginal character, nor did her association with\nAstr\u00e6a, the goddess of justice.\n\nBeside Spica, Virgo has no very bright stars, and it is hardly doubtful\nthat the imaginary purity ascribed to the constellation was derived\nentirely from the unsullied whiteness of Spica. While gazing at that\nbeautiful star all of these associations, coming from times so remote\nand peoples so distant, crowd into the mind, increasing the interest\nwith which one regards it. The nations who named it the vernal star,\nbefore all others, have gone the way of terrestrial things, but the\nstar remains, as pearly fair as when Aratus sang to it:\n\n  \u201cLo, the Virgin!...\n  Her favor be upon us!\u201d\n\nThen science comes to carry the thoughts to grander, if less romantic,\nheights. Spica, it tells us, is a sun which might well claim to be\nincluded in Newcomb\u2019s wonderful \u201cXM\u201d class--_i. e._, stars excelling\nour sun at least _ten thousand times_ in splendor, for, notwithstanding\nthe brilliance with which it delights us, it is so remote that no\ncertain estimate of its distance can be made, its parallax escaping\nmeasurement--what, then, must be the intolerable blaze with which it\nillumines its immediate neighborhood! But when Science begins her\nrevelations no man can foretell the wonders that she will discover.\nThe spectroscope avers that Spica is speeding hitherward at a pace\nof more than 32,000 miles per hour! Each night that star is almost\n700,000 miles nearer than it was the night before, and yet it is not\nperceptibly brighter than it was in the days of Homer. Such are the\nstar depths! Such is the measureless playground of the spinning suns!\nThen Science, inspired by its spectroscopic sibyl, whispers another\nstartling word in our ears: That core of white fire glowing so softly\nin the vernal midnight has an invisible companion star, with which it\ncircles in an orbit 6,000,000 miles in diameter, and every four days\nthey complete a swing in their mighty waltz!\n\nThe star Epsilon (\u03b5) in Virgo (see Chart VII, at the end of the book)\nis _Vindemiatrix_, the \u201cGrape-gatherer,\u201d thus named from some imagined\nassociation with the vintage. _Mukdim-al-Kitaf_, \u201cThe Forerunner of the\nVintage,\u201d the Arabs called it, taking their hint from the Greeks before\nthem. Admiral Smyth, in his _Cycle of Celestial Objects_, has these\ncurious lines on this star:\n\n  \u201cWould you the Star of Bacchus find on noble Virgo\u2019s wing,\n  A lengthy ray from Hydra\u2019s heart unto Arcturus bring;\n  Two-thirds along that fancied line direct th\u2019 inquiring eye,\n  And there the jewel will be seen, south of Cor Caroli.\u201d\n\nThe reader may be interested in trying the star-loving admiral\u2019s plan\nfor finding _Vindemiatrix_.\n\nGamma (\u03b3) is _Porrima_, a prophetic goddess of ancient Latium,\nconsulted especially by the women. But for us this star is most\ninteresting as being one of the first binaries discovered in the\nheavens. It is a charming object for a small telescope. The two\ncomponents revolve round their common centre of gravity in a period of\nabout one hundred and eighty years.\n\nAs the reader progresses in his studies he will find Virgo full of\ninteresting objects, including the celebrated \u201cField of the Nebul\u00e6,\u201d\nmarked out by the stars Beta (\u03b2), Gamma (\u03b3), Delta (\u03b4), Epsilon (\u03b5),\nand Eta (\u03b7); but to see the nebul\u00e6, which are thickly scattered there,\nhe must have a powerful telescope.\n\nSouthwest of Virgo, but near the southeastern horizon, the\nquadrilateral figure of the constellation Corvus, the \u201cCrow,\u201d catches\nthe eye. Its brightest star is of less than the second magnitude,\nyet by their apparent association the four stars immediately attract\nattention. One sees no special reason why the figures marked out by\nthese stars should be likened to the form of a bird; but it was a raven\nto both the Greeks and the Romans, and similarly symbolical to other\nearly peoples. The Arabs, however, at first called it the \u201cTent,\u201d a\ndesignation which at least had a real resemblance for its basis. But\nthese stars possess a charm independent of any fancied likeness to\nterrestrial things. In looking at them we do not think of the billions\nof miles which actually separate them from each other, but only of\ntheir seeming companionship. If, on the other hand, we force ourselves\nto consider the immense distances between them the mind is overwhelmed\nwith the reflection that here, plainly staked out before us, is a field\nof space of absolutely unthinkable magnitude with its angles as clearly\nmarked as if a celestial surveyor had placed corner-stones there.\nNote that the star Alpha (\u03b1), once the leader of the constellation\nin brightness as well as in alphabetical rank, is now so faint that\nyou have to look for it where it shrinks, in half concealment, below\none of its now brighter neighbors. These abasements are not very\nuncommon among the stars. Their glory, too, is mutable; they also have\ntheir ups and downs. The Arabic name for Alpha (\u03b1) was _Al Chiba_, or\n_Al Hiba_, meaning the \u201cTent.\u201d Gamma (\u03b3), now the brightest star of\nthe constellation, was called _Gienah_, the \u201cWing,\u201d and Delta (\u03b4),\n_Algorab_, or _Al Ghurab_, the Arabic name for \u201cRaven,\u201d but Beta (\u03b2),\nwhich is perhaps as bright as Gamma (\u03b3), has no special designation.\n\nFrom Corvus the eye wanders naturally to its neighbor on the west,\nCrater, the \u201cCup.\u201d Both of these constellations rest on the back of\nthe long serpentine Hydra. Crater is far less conspicuous than Corvus;\nbut its resemblance to a cup is rather striking, although the imaginary\nvessel lies tipped up on its side with the open part toward the east.\nAmong the many ascriptions of this starry cup in ancient mythology to\nvarious gods and goddesses, none is more interesting than that which\nmade it the cup of Medea, thus including Crater among the numerous\nconstellations which were associated in the imagination of the Greeks\nwith their great romance of the Argonautic Expedition. Its brightest\nstars are only of the fourth and fifth magnitudes, and individually not\nworth much attention.\n\nHydra, which stretches its immense coils across about seven hours of\nright ascension, passing under Cancer, Leo, Crater, Corvus, Virgo, and\na part of Libra, also carries the mind back through the golden mists of\nthe morning of Greek mythology to the adventures of Jason and his crew\nof Argonauts, for it was once identified with the Aonian Dragon. It\nwould be interesting to inquire how much of the perennial fascination\nof this ancient romance may be due to its traditional association\nwith the stars. Look first at the head of Hydra, now well west of the\nmeridian, below the glimmering \u201cBeehive\u201d in Cancer. It is marked by\nfive stars of various magnitudes making an irregular pentagon. Then\nlet the eye follow the line down southeastward until it encounters Cor\nHydr\u00e6, or _Alphard_, the latter its Arabic name, meaning the \u201cSolitary\nOne.\u201d It is of the second magnitude and of a reddish color, and the\nspace about it is vacant of conspicuous stars. There is an attraction\nabout these solitary bright stars that is almost mystical, their very\nloneliness lending interest to the view, as when one watches some\ndistant snow-clad peak gleaming in the rays of sunset after all the\nlower mountains have sunk into the blue shadows of coming night. Cor\nHydr\u00e6 is the Alpha (\u03b1) of its constellation.\n\nAbove Hydra, northeast of Cor Hydr\u00e6, at the crossing of the ecliptic\nand the meridian, is the great star Regulus in Leo, the \u201cLion.\u201d It\nstands at the lower end of the handle of a very distinctly marked\nsickle-shaped figure, which includes the breast, head, and mane of the\nimaginary lion. Regulus is not only a beautiful star, but it possesses\nmuch practical importance as one of the principal \u201cnautical stars,\u201d\nhaving been employed by sailors ever since the beginning of navigation\nto determine their place at sea. The sun almost runs over this star\nabout the 20th of August, and every month the moon passes close beside\nit, and sometimes occults it. Thus it serves as a golden mile-stone\nin the sky. It has strangely affected the imagination of mankind in\nall ages. From the remotest times it has everywhere been known as the\n\u201croyal star\u201d _par excellence_. In Greek it was =\u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03af\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2=, in Latin\n_Rex_, from which Copernicus constructed our name, Regulus. There are\nthree other \u201croyal stars,\u201d Aldebaran, Antares, and Fomalhaut, but\nRegulus has always been, in a certain way, their chief. For five\nthousand years it has been believed, traditionally, to control the\naffairs of heaven, and the astrologers have seized upon this idea\nby making it the natal star of kings, and those destined to kingly\nachievements and rule. In our age of science we may safely indulge\nthese fancies; they can now do no harm, and they add immensely to the\ninterest with which we regard the star that gave birth to them. When\nthe \u201cRoyal Star\u201d crosses high on the meridian in the vernal evenings,\nthe imagination is thrown back over almost the whole course of the\nhistory of the Aryan race, and the rays of Regulus bring again the\ndreams of Babylon and Nineveh, of Greece and Rome, of India, and of\nthe star-watching deserts of Arabia. Cyrus, in his conquering marches,\nmay have looked to that star for help and inspiration, for it was the\nheavenly guardian of the Persian monarchs.\n\nThe spectroscope tells us that Regulus, like Spica, is approaching\nus, but less rapidly, drawing nearer about 475,000 miles per day. But\nits distance is 950,000,000,000,000 miles (parallax 0\u2033.02), and it\noutshines the sun one thousand times.\n\nThe second star above Regulus, in the curve of the sickle\u2019s blade,\nis Gamma (\u03b3), or _Algieba_ (Arabic the \u201cForehead\u201d), a beautiful\ndouble, probably binary, with a period of revolution which Doberck has\nestimated at about four hundred years. The larger star of the pair is\ngolden-orange and the smaller bronze-green, a marvellous contrast, and\nan ordinary telescope shows well the spectacle, the distance between\nthe components being 3\u2033.78. And this wonderful pair is rushing toward\nthe solar system at the rate of _two million miles per day_. Yet so\ngreat is its distance that we have no record that in a thousand years\nmen have noticed a brightening of the headlight of this terrible\nlocomotive of space! But probably the more refined methods of the\npresent time, if applied for a similar period, would reveal an ominous\nexpansion of that oncoming light. Gamma is interesting as marking,\nroughly, the spot in the sky which was the apparent centre of radiation\nfor the November meteors, which were last seen in their splendor in\n1866-67, their return in 1899-1900, for which the world had long been\nwaiting, having been prevented by the disturbing attraction of Jupiter\nand Saturn, which shifted their orbit.\n\nThe \u201cSickle\u201d in its entirety is an attractive asterism, and hanging so\nconspicuously in the sky on a spring evening it may be imaginatively\nregarded as a harbinger of the opening of the season when the thoughts\nof men are turning to preparations for future harvests. In the height\nof the harvest season the \u201cSickle\u201d sets near sundown, then no longer\nstanding upright, but lying along upon the horizon--a symbol of the\nwearied husbandman\u2019s approaching hours of rest:\n\n  \u201cNor shall a starry night his hopes betray.\u201d\n\nAway off at the eastern end of the constellation, in the lion\u2019s tail,\nshines its second star in rank, Denebola (Arabic _Al Dhanab_, the\n\u201cTail\u201d). It too is speeding hitherward, but only half as fast as Gamma.\nLike Aldebaran, the name Denebola has an indefinite charm, from its\nfull round vowel sounds, and a certain nobility in the look of it as\nit lies on the printed page. As with many sonorous Indian names in\nAmerican geography, these old star names lose something of their effect\nwhen they are translated. It is better to take them as they stand,\ntranscending terrestrial analogy and definition, like the sublime\nobjects that they designate.\n\nNortheast of Denebola lies the small constellation of Coma Berenices,\n\u201cBerenice\u2019s Hair,\u201d remarkable for the confused glitter of the small\nscattered stars of which it consists. It is a constellation with a\nromantic history which I shall not retell here. It forms an attraction\nfor an opera-glass.\n\nWe now return to the region of sky above the head of Hydra, west of\nthe meridian. There the attention is arrested by a glimmering spot,\na kind of starry cobweb, which represents the \u201cBeehive\u201d cluster in\nCancer. Its classical name is _Pr\u00e6sepe_, the \u201cManger.\u201d In _Astronomy\nwith the Naked Eye_ will be found a copy of Galileo\u2019s drawing of the\nstars of Pr\u00e6sepe as they appeared to him with his newly invented\ntelescope. It is delightful to look at them on a clear night with a\nlarge opera-glass or a small telescope. They are an example of that\nclustering tendency so often seen among the stars, and which reaches\nits most wonderful manifestations in such assemblages as the famous\nglobular clusters in Hercules and Centaurus, where countless thousands\nof small stars appear to be so crowded together that in the centre they\nrun up into a perfect blaze. But in Pr\u00e6sepe there is no such apparent\ncrowding, though the stars are so numerous that they resemble a swarm\nof bees. The probability is that none of the stars in this company is\nas large as our sun--although we cannot be perfectly sure because we\ndo not know their distance--but they are, nevertheless, true stellar\nbodies, solar children, which seem playing together, overwatched by\nlarger stars, waiting not far away. Plato, or his disciples, taking the\nsuggestion from older dreamers, regarded Pr\u00e6sepe as a gateway of souls\nthrough which descended the spirits that were to animate the bodies\nof men during their earthly life. There are moods in which one can\nhardly consider our coldly scientific way of treating such celestial\nwonders as being essentially superior to the more spiritual ideas\nand suggestions of the visionaries of antiquity, before man became\npossessed with the notion that all science is summed up in measurement.\nUnquestionably we have more \u201cfacts,\u201d but have we more inspiration? Are\nwe as near to the stars as were those who knew less about them? Have we\nyet got the key to unlock the universe? Do many of us comprehend the\n_dictum_ of one of our own modern sages--\u201cHitch your wagon to a star\u201d?\n\nCancer has no conspicuous stars, and it covers but a small space on the\nsky, yet as a constellation it is as old as any, and it has given us\nour \u201cTropic of Cancer,\u201d because in ancient times, before the Precession\nof the Equinoxes had drifted the zodiacal signs and constellations\napart, the place of the Summer Solstice, where the sun is at its\nnorthern extreme of declination, was situated in Cancer, though now we\nfind it in Gemini, close to the borders of Taurus.\n\nWestward from Cancer we see the great group of mighty stars and\nconstellations of which Orion is the chief and centre, but Sirius the\nbrightest jewel. They are now declining rapidly toward the horizon, and\nwill be better studied at another season. They include, besides Orion,\nGemini, Auriga, Taurus, Canis Major, and Canis Minor, and will be found\nmore favorably situated in the chart devoted to the sky at the Winter\nSolstice. For the present, then, we turn our eyes to the northern\ncentral part of the vernal heavens. There, almost overhead, shines\nthe \u201cGreat Bear,\u201d Ursa Major, always recognizable by the remarkable\nfigure of the \u201cGreat Dipper,\u201d or, as they prefer to call it in Old\nEngland--where brimming dippers of sparkling water lifted dripping\nfrom the \u201cold oaken bucket\u201d are not so familiar as in New England--the\n\u201cWain,\u201d or the \u201cPlough.\u201d We have already remarked that at this season\nthe Bear has his feet uppermost in the middle of the sky and his back\ndownward toward the pole. The Dipper, too, is now upside down, drained\nof its last imaginary drop, though its stars may be the more brilliant\nfor that. The figure of the bowl is situated on the flank of the\nBear, and its handle represents his impossible tail. Six of its stars\nare of the second magnitude, and one, at the junction of the bowl\nand the handle, of the third. Their Greek letters, beginning at the\nnorthwestern corner of the bowl, are, _Alpha_ (\u03b1), _Beta_ (\u03b2), _Gamma_\n(\u03b3), _Delta_ (\u03b4), _Epsilon_ (\u03b5), _Zeta_ (\u03b6), and _Eta_ (\u03b7), and their\nnames, in the same order, _Dubhe_, _Merak_, _Ph\u00e6d_, _Megrez_, _Alioth_,\n_Mizar_, and _Benetnasch_.\n\nI once knew a country school-teacher who thought that he had acquired\na pretty good knowledge of astronomy when he had learned these names\nby heart. He certainly knew more of uranography than most people. The\nnames seem to be all of Arabic origin, and at the risk of destroying\ntheir charm I will give, from Allen\u2019s _Star Names_, their probable\nsignifications. _Dubhe_ means simply \u201cBear\u201d; _Merak_ (sometimes\n_Mirak_), \u201cLoin\u201d; _Ph\u00e6d_ (sometimes _Phecda_ or _Phad_), \u201cThigh\u201d;\n_Megrez_, \u201cRoot of the Tail\u201d; _Alioth_, meaning uncertain, probably\nsomething to do with the tail; _Mizar_ (originally _Mirak_), \u201cGirdle\u201d;\nand _Benetnasch_ (sometimes _Alcaid_), \u201cChief of the Mourners,\u201d from an\nArabic phrase having that signification.\n\nThe star Megrez, now so much fainter than the others, was once as\nbright as any of them. It has faded within three hundred years.\n\nClose by Mizar a fairly good eye has no difficulty in seeing a small\nstar which is named Alcor (signification uncertain). The Arabs are\nsaid to have called these two stars the \u201cHorse and his Rider,\u201d and\nto have regarded it as a test of good vision to be able to see them\nboth. It is certainly not a severe test at present. Mizar itself\nis telescopically double, presenting a beautiful sight in a small\ntelescope, the distance asunder being about 14\u2033. The smaller star is\nlike an emerald in hue, and the color is usually remarked at once by\nthe beginner in telescopic observation. The larger star is one of\nthose strange objects called \u201cspectroscopic binaries\u201d--two suns locked\nin the embrace of gravitation and spinning round a centre so near to\neach other that to anything less penetrating than the magic eye of the\nspectroscope they appear as a single body.\n\nMerak and Dubhe are the celebrated \u201cPointers,\u201d so called because a line\ndrawn from the former to the latter, and continued toward the pole,\npasses close to Polaris, the Pole-star, of which we shall presently\nspeak. The distance between these stars is about five degrees, so that\nthey serve as a rough measuring-stick for estimating distances in the\nsky. Immediately west of the meridian will be seen a curving row of\nstars which indicate the head of the Bear. Three of his feet, or claws,\nare represented by as many pairs of stars between the Great Dipper and\nthe Sickle of Leo, one of the pairs being east of the meridian, one\nwest of it, and one nearly upon it. Below the outer end of the handle\nof the Dipper, in the direction of Denebola, a fairly bright star, Cor\nCaroli, which English loyalty named for the heart of the unfortunate\nKing Charles I., shines on the collar of one of the \u201cHunting Dogs,\u201d\nCanes Venatici, which Bo\u00f6tes is represented as holding in a leash as\nhe chases Ursa Major round the pole. This, too, is a beautiful double,\nthe contrasted colors of whose widely separated stars are finely shown\nby a small telescope.\n\nNow let the eye run along the curve of the Dipper\u2019s handle, beginning\nat the bowl, and then, springing on, continue the same curve eastward;\nit will encounter, at a distance about equal to the whole length of the\nDipper, a very great and brilliant star--Arcturus, brighter than Spica\nand Regulus, and usually, when not very far risen from the horizon, of\na distinctly reddish hue. It is the chief star of Bo\u00f6tes, the \u201cDriver,\u201d\nthe \u201cVociferator,\u201d the \u201cHerdsman,\u201d or the \u201cBear-watcher,\u201d as it has\nbeen variously rendered. We shall have more to say about Bo\u00f6tes in\nanother chapter, but Arcturus is a star so splendid and famous that\nit cannot be passed in silence the first time the beginner catches\nsight of it. There is a standing dispute concerning the relative rank\nin brightness of Arcturus among the leading stars of the northern\nhemisphere. Its principal rivals are Vega in the Lyre, and Capella in\nAuriga. But all three differ in color, and that makes it more difficult\nto decide upon their relative brilliance, since different eyes vary in\ntheir sensitiveness to color. The Harvard Photometric _Durchmusterung_\ngives Vega the first and Arcturus the third rank among these three;\nbut many eyes recognize rather a pre-eminence of Arcturus. My own\nimpression has usually been that Arcturus looms larger than either Vega\nor Capella, but that Vega is the most penetratingly brilliant. It is\nvery curious to notice the effect of the colors of these stars. The\nsharp blue ray in the light of Vega gives it a diamond-like quality\nwhich is lacking in Capella, whose light is white with just a suspicion\nof amber. Arcturus is a very pale topaz when high in the sky, and a\nruddy yellow, sometimes flaming red, when near the horizon. It is a\nthrilling recollection of the writer\u2019s early boyhood that he felt an\nundefined fear of Arcturus when seen rising ominously red and flashing\nthrough the leafless boughs of an apple orchard in the late evenings of\nFebruary. All the ancients feared Arcturus for its supposed influence\nin producing storms and bad harvests.\n\nArcturus is a sun of enormous magnitude, estimated all the way from one\nto six thousand times as great in luminosity as our sun. It is also\ntravelling with great rapidity, its speed, according to some estimates,\namounting to two or three hundred miles per second; but most of this\nis cross-motion with reference to us, its general direction being\ntoward the south-southwest. If it is travelling three hundred miles per\nsecond, it would traverse the space between the sun and the nearest\nstar, Alpha Centauri, in about three thousand years. We shall touch on\nArcturus again when dealing with Bo\u00f6tes in the next chapter.\n\nDisregarding for the present the exquisite circlet of Corona Borealis,\nthe \u201cNorthern Crown,\u201d and the quadrilateral figure in Hercules, seen\nnortheast of Arcturus, we turn to the great dragon, Draco, whose\ndiamond-shaped head may be seen far over in the northeast above\nsparkling Vega, which is just on the horizon. As a reference to the\ncharts of the circumpolar stars at the end of the book will show,\nDraco is a remarkably crooked constellation, its line of stars winding\nround between the \u201cLittle Dipper\u201d in Ursa Minor, which has Polaris at\nthe end of its handle, and the \u201cGreat Dipper\u201d of Ursa Major. Its most\ninteresting, though not now its brightest, star is Alpha, or _Thuban_,\nArabic for \u201cdragon.\u201d It lies between the end of the handle of the Great\nDipper and the bowl of the small one. About forty-six hundred years\nago Alpha Draconis was the Pole-star, and is believed to have shone\ndown the long tube-like passage in the great pyramid of Cheops into\nthe watching eyes of the priestly astronomers, assembled to view it\nin the mysterious chamber hollowed out of the solid rock deep under\nthe foundations of the mighty pile. They thus had a telescope more\nthan three hundred feet long as immovable as the solid earth, but,\nalas for their calculations, the star itself shifted its position,\nand their gigantic observing tube became useless until modern science\ninferred from its position the date of their building. How imposing\nto the imagination this association between a particular star and the\nmightiest structure made by human hands on the earth! Two centuries\nago Thuban was more than twice as bright as it is now, and when the\nEgyptian priests sedulously observed it from their gloomy cavern, more\nthan a thousand years before the magic-working days of Moses, it may\nhave been brighter still.\n\nGamma (\u03b3), or Eltanin (the \u201cDragon\u201d), in the triangular head, is now\nthe brightest star in the constellation, and it, too, has a history.\nLockyer and others have identified it as the orientation star of\nRameses\u2019 great temple at Karnak, and of the temples of Hathor and Mut\nat Dendera and Thebes. There is something magnificent in this thought\nof the ancient temple-builders--to square their work by the stars, and\nto construct long rows of sphinxes and majestic columns to conduct a\nray from the sky to the eye of the god in his dark and hidden chamber,\nwhere no impious foot dared follow.\n\nWhen you are tired of tracing the windings of the Dragon, turn to Ursa\nMinor and Polaris. The \u201cLittle Bear,\u201d it has been remarked, has an even\nmore preposterous tail than his greater brother. Polaris is at the end\nof the tail, or the end of the handle of the Little Dipper, and the\nbowl of the latter is on the bear\u2019s flank.\n\nIf one knows nothing else of uranography, one should at least know\nPolaris, the \u201cNorth Star.\u201d To recognize that star is to be able to\norient yourself wherever you may be in the northern hemisphere. A whole\nvolume could be written on its connection with human affairs. For at\nleast two thousand years it has been the cynosure of sailors, and of\nwanderers by land as well. You cannot be lost if you have Polaris to\nguide you. The magnetic compass varies and misleads, the sun and\nthe moon change their places, all the other stars circle through the\nheavens, but Polaris is always there, shining over the pole of the\nearth, the image of steadfastness. Only the slow Precession of the\nEquinoxes affects it. At the present time it is within one degree and\na quarter of the true pole of the heavens, and it is drawing nearer\nthat point, so that in two hundred years it will be less than half a\ndegree from it--less than the apparent diameter of the moon. The little\ncircle that it daily describes in the sky may be disregarded, for it\nis hardly noticeable except with instruments; but it is easy to fix\nthe star\u2019s position with considerable accuracy by simple observation.\nNote that the Great Dipper and the \u201cW\u201d-shaped figure in Cassiopeia are\non opposite sides of the pole. When one is above, the other is below;\nwhen one is on the east, the other is on the west. Draw an imaginary\nline from the star Mizar in the Great Dipper to the star Delta (\u03b4) in\nCassiopeia and it will pass almost directly through the pole. Polaris\nis on that line, a degree and a quarter from the pole in the direction\nof Delta Cassiopei\u00e6. If the observation is made when Delta is above\nthe pole and Mizar below it, Polaris will be on the meridian, or north\nand south line, a degree and a quarter above the pole; when Delta is\nwest of the pole and Mizar east of it, Polaris will be a degree and a\nquarter west of the meridian; when Delta is below the pole and Mizar\nabove it, Polaris will be on the meridian a degree and a quarter below\nthe pole; and, finally, when Delta is east of the pole and Mizar west\nof it, Polaris will be a degree and a quarter east of the meridian. The\nintermediate positions you can easily deduce for yourself.\n\nBut Polaris will not continue to be the unerring guide to the north\nthat it now is. The Precession of the Equinoxes is carrying the\npole progressively westward in right ascension, so that Polaris\nwill eventually be left far behind. But the motion of the pole is\nin a circle about twenty-three and a half degrees in radius, and it\nrequires about 25,800 years to complete a revolution round this circle.\nConsequently, at the end of that period, Polaris will have come back\nto reign again as the North Star for many centuries. In the interim\nother stars will have occupied its place. About 11,500 years from now\nthe brilliant Vega, or Alpha Lyr\u00e6, will be the North Star, and in\nabout 21,000 years Alpha Draconis (Thuban) will once more shine down\nthe great northward-pointing passage in the pyramid of Cheops, if that\npyramid shall still exist.\n\nPolaris, unlike some of the others stars that we have been looking\nat, is running away into space instead of approaching us, at a speed\nwhich has been estimated at about 1,380,000 miles per day. Its present\ndistance is not less than 200,000,000,000,000 miles. It has an\ninvisible companion with which it circles in an orbit of a few million\nmiles diameter in a period of about four days.\n\nPolaris is also a celebrated visual double. With a telescope of two\nor three inches aperture you can see close by its flaming rays a\nminute blue star, a delicately beautiful sight. In the older days of\ntelescopes, before they had attained the perfection which improvements\nin glass-making and lens-shaping have rendered possible, this little\ncompanion star of Polaris was a universal test of excellence. Its\nprestige was historical. The amateur owner of a telescope who could\nsee that star clearly felt a joy that he could hardly express. The old\nmakers of object-glasses, by rule of thumb, always tried them on the\ncompanion of the Polestar as a standard test for small apertures. The\nsmall star is of the ninth magnitude, and situated about 18\u2033.6 from its\nprimary.\n\nThe stars Beta (\u03b2), or Kochab (the \u201cStar\u201d), and Gamma (\u03b3), in Ursa\nMinor, are called the Wardens, or Guards, of the Pole. In low northern\nlatitudes, where these stars sweep the horizon at their lower\nculmination, Shakespeare\u2019s description in _Othello_ would be literally\ntrue during a great storm at sea:\n\n  \u201cThe wind-shak\u2019d surge, with high and monstrous mane,\n  Seems to cast water on the burning Bear\n  And quench the guards of th\u2019 ever-fixed pole.\u201d\n\nThe constellations Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and Perseus, now low in the\nnorthwest and north, we leave for description to another chapter.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nTHE EVENING SKY AT THE SUMMER SOLSTICE\n\n\nAt 10 o\u2019clock P.M. on the 21st of June, the longest day of the\nnorthern hemisphere, the aspect of the sky is that shown in Chart II,\naccompanying this chapter. The same chart will answer for 11 P.M. on\nthe 5th or 6th of June; 9 P.M. on the 7th of July, and 8 P.M. on the\n22d or 23d of July. In fact, for any of the hours mentioned the date\nmay be shifted several days forward or backward without seriously\naffecting the comparison of the chart with the sky, and the same may be\nsaid of each of the other circular charts. The stars simply rise about\nfour minutes earlier each evening, and four minutes of time correspond\nto one degree of space measured on the face of the sky. So the whole\nsky shifts about one degree westward every twenty-four hours.\n\nFor the observation of the heavens at the epoch of the Summer Solstice,\nobservers who are situated at least as far south as 40\u00b0 north latitude\nhave an advantage over those whose place on the earth is much farther\nnorth, because in the more northern regions sunset occurs later, and\nin England and Northern Europe the day, at this time, may exceed\nsixteen hours in length, while twilight is perceptible throughout\nthe night. This interferes with the brilliancy of the stars.\n\n[Illustration: CHART II--THE SUMMER EVENING SKY]\n\nAt no other season do the heavenly bodies seem so intimately associated\nwith the earth as in summer. All nature is now attuned, and the stars\nglow softly in the tepid atmosphere, stirred by faint breezes, like\nveritable flowers of the sky. The firmament becomes a vast garden lit\nwith beautiful lamps, which seem to have been placed there to dimly\nilluminate nocturnal wanderers in the transparent gloom beneath. Their\nbeauty is as refreshing as the cooling breath of night itself. A mystic\ninfluence steals from them over the earth.\n\n\u201cIf a man would be alone,\u201d says Emerson, \u201clet him look at the stars.\u201d\n\nYet he cannot be alone with them; they are too friendly; they speak too\nplainly a universal language, which, though he cannot translate it,\nhe _feels_ in every fibre. There is nothing more absolutely common to\nall men than the influence of the stars. No one ever gazed up at them\nwithout feeling a change come over his spirit. Truly, \u201cthey separate\nbetween him and what he touches.\u201d They free him from the bondage of\ntime and space. There is no trouble that they cannot assuage. And there\nis no time like the summer for becoming intimate with them. One who has\nbeen touched by the magic of their love could lie all the night long on\na bed of pine-needles and fill his soul with their beauty. The march of\nred Antares and his glittering retinue across the meridian while the\nearth sleeps in solstitial calm--who can describe that pageant?\n\nAntares is _the_ summer star, and with it and the Scorpion we will\nbegin. Not so bright as Arcturus or Vega, which are now high aloft, it\nhas a charm peculiar to itself, arising partly from its fervid color,\npartly from its surroundings, and partly from its position, not too\nhigh above the southern horizon, which renders observation of the star\ncomparatively easy. The color is so distinctive that one might think\nthat he could recognize Antares chromatically if it were suddenly\ntransported to some other region of the sky and placed amid a strange\nenvironment. Sometimes a flash of its fiery rays, striking sidewise\ninto the eye as one is looking elsewhere, startles the observer like a\nred meteor. It is well named Antares--\u201cAnti-Mars.\u201d With the telescope\nthe wonder of color is increased, for close by the great star the\nglass reveals a smaller one of a _vivid green_, an all but incredible\ncombination of complementarily tinted suns. And these suns are\nundoubtedly actually linked together into a system, so that, if there\nare planets revolving around both or either, the inhabitants of those\nplanets may behold the spectacle of two suns, one crimson and the other\nemerald! The large star is of the first magnitude, and the small one of\nthe seventh; angular distance 3\u2033.7.\n\nThe companion of Antares is historically associated with the most\ninteresting of American astronomers, a man whose life was a romance,\nGen. O. M. Mitchel. When his long-cherished design of setting up a\ngreat telescope in America was at last fulfilled, at Cincinnati, in\n1845, one of his first achievements was the discovery, to the surprise\nof the astronomers of Europe, of the green star hiding in the rays of\nAntares. At times it has been seen emerging from behind the moon, after\nan occultation, ahead of its red comrade.\n\nWith a parallax of 0\u2033.02, Newcomb estimated the luminosity of Antares\nat nine hundred times that of our sun, and yet the spectroscope\nindicates that it is a dying sun, fast approaching extinction. In its\nyounger days it may have been an orb of prodigious splendor.\n\nThe constellation Scorpio, of which Antares is the leader, is one of\nthe best marked in the sky. The two small stars Sigma (\u03c3) and Tau (\u03c4),\nstanding like attendants on either side of Antares, lend a singular\naspect to the central part of the constellation. Antares is usually\nrepresented as the heart of the imaginary scorpion. Below Tau a curving\nrow of stars dips to the southern horizon, and then rises, farther\neastward, terminating with a conspicuous pair in the uplifted sting.\nWest of Antares a nearly vertical row represents the head. Of the\nstars in this row, Beta (\u03b2) is interesting as a fine and easily seen\ndouble, the distance being about 13\u2033. A higher magnifying power shows\nthat the larger star has another faint companion, distant only 0\u2033.7. Nu\n(\u03bd) is also telescopically interesting, for it consists of two pairs\nof stars. Observe in Chart VII the strange way in which the outlines\nof the constellation have been swung into loops in order to include\ncertain stars in Scorpio, recalling the crooked boundary between\nSwitzerland and Italy, by which each reserves particular peaks of the\nAlps for itself.\n\nEast of Scorpio, where the Milky Way, falling in flakes and sheets of\nsilvery splendor upon the southeastern horizon, spreads abroad like an\noverflowing river, lies Sagittarius, the \u201cArcher,\u201d often represented\nin the old pictorial charts as a centaur. The stars Lambda (\u03bb), Delta\n(\u03b4), and Epsilon (\u03b5) form the bent bow. But modern eyes recognize more\neasily a dipper, formed by the stars Zeta (\u03b6), Tau (\u03c4), Sigma (\u03c3),\nPhi (\u03c6), Lambda (\u03bb), and Mu (\u03bc). But the star-clusters in Sagittarius\nare more interesting than the separate stars. A little southwest of\nMu is the famous cluster 8 M., of which Barnard has made a photograph\nthat is amazing beyond all description. Other clusters are all about\nin this part of the sky. A good opera-glass or field-glass is almost\nindispensable for one who would enjoy the glory of this wondrous\nregion. Its riches are almost oppressive in their lavish abundance.\nHere one can have handfuls of stars for the picking up, like sands of\ngold from the bed of Pactolus. As the glittering incrustations that\ncover the roofs and walls of the Mammoth Cave are often compared to\nthe starry heavens, so, reversing the image, Sagittarius is like a\nstupendous cavern of space all ablaze and aglitter with millions of\nsparkling gems.\n\nAbove Scorpio and Sagittarius are the intertwined constellations\nof Ophiuchus and Serpens. He who may wish to disentangle them is\nreferred to _Astronomy with the Naked Eye_. But the outlines can be\ntraced in Chart VII. The head of Serpens, like those of Hydra and\nDraco, is plainly marked by a striking group of stars, in this case\nresembling the figure called a \u201cquincunx.\u201d From this point just under\nthe \u201cNorthern Crown,\u201d the serpent\u2019s stars wind downward in beautiful\npairs and groups, crossing the meridian above Scorpio, and rising again\nin the eastern part of the sky, above the little constellation of\nSobieski\u2019s Shield, until they meet the borders of Aquila. Ophiuchus,\nwith his head high up toward Hercules, where it is marked by the\nbrightest star in that part of the sky, Alpha Ophiuchi, or Ras Alhague,\nthe \u201cHead of the Serpent Charmer,\u201d stands with legs braced wide apart,\ngrasping the serpent at the points marked by the stars Delta (\u03b4) and\nEpsilon (\u03b5), and Tau (\u03c4) and Nu (\u03bd). It is Esculapius with his Serpent,\nsaid the Greeks; it is St. Paul and the Viper of Melita, or Moses and\nthe Brazen Serpent, we don\u2019t know which, said the churchmen. I am\nnot aware that in England they have ever been tempted to call it St.\nGeorge and the Dragon. Politics and national pride have not meddled\nmuch with the stars, although there was once an attempt to fix the name\nof Napoleon upon Orion. Ras Alhague is described by R. H. Allen as\nsapphire in hue, while Alpha Serpentis is yellowish. The star Lambda\n(\u03bb) in Ophiuchus, also called Marfik, the \u201cElbow,\u201d is a beautiful\nbinary, period 235 years, distance apart 1\u2033.2. The smaller star is\nsmalt blue, a splendid telescopic object.\n\nBut, as in the case of Sagittarius, the greater wonders here are in the\nform of star-clusters, and particularly nebul\u00e6. Just above Antares,\nin one of the feet of Ophiuchus, is a small star, Rho (to find which\nthe reader must consult a large star atlas, like Klein\u2019s), around\nwhich Barnard has discovered, by photography, a truly marvellous\nnebula, a nebula which appears _to obscure the stars_ like a cloud of\ncosmic dust. Great black lanes extend from and around it, and even the\nluminous parts of the nebula seem to absorb the light of the stars\nbehind, diminishing their brightness a whole magnitude or more where\nthey are veiled by it. This entire region of sky is most strange to the\nphotographic eye. An outlier of the nebula just mentioned surrounds the\nstar Nu (\u03bd) in Scorpio, and its veiling effect upon the stars is even\nmore evident. There is a similar appearance around the star Theta (\u03b8)\nOphiuchi, not far away. The sense of some appalling mystery in this\npart of the firmament is heightened by what Barnard says of a thing\nwhich has reappeared again and again on his photographs during the past\nfifteen years, at a point which he describes as lying very closely to\nR. A. xviii hours, 25 m., 31 s.; Decl. S. 26\u00b0, 9\u2032 (near the star Lambda\n(\u03bb) in Sagittarius).\n\n\u201cIt is a small, black hole in the sky. It is round and sharply defined.\nIts measured diameter on the negative is 2\u2032.6. On account of its\nsharpness and smallness and its isolation, this is perhaps the most\nremarkable of all the black holes with which I am acquainted. It lies\nin an ordinary part of the Milky Way, and is not due to the presence or\nabsence of stars, but seems really to be a marking on the sky itself\u201d\n(_Astrophysical Journal_, January, 1910).\n\nThese things really transcend explanation (see _Curiosities of the\nSky_).\n\nAbove Ophiuchus and his Serpent, almost exactly overhead in the\nlatitude of 40\u00b0 N., we see the quadrilateral figure marked out by four\nof the principal stars of the constellation Hercules. The head of\nDraco, described in Chapter I, is beyond it toward the north-northeast.\nHercules stands feet upward in the sky, his head, indicated by the\nstar Alpha, or Ras Algethi, the \u201cKneeler\u2019s Head,\u201d being situated a few\ndegrees west-northwest of Ras Alhague. Thus the two giants have their\nheads together. But while the occupation of Ophiuchus is plain, nobody,\nnot even in ancient times, when the constellation received its name,\nhas ever been able to say what Hercules is laboring at. When he was on\nthe earth everybody followed his deeds and understood, if they could\nnot emulate, them. He was as comprehensible as a modern pugilist. Now,\nhowever, that he has been translated to the stars, his labors are of\na more mysterious nature, and, judging from his attitude, he finds\nthem harder than any he undertook for the benefit of mankind here\nbelow. One is tempted to think that the powers he offended, when he\nboldly entered the land of shades and snatched the wife of his friend,\nKing Admetus, from the hand of Death himself, are now taking an ample\nvengeance.\n\nRas Algethi is a very beautiful double star, one red, the other green\nor blue, and both, strangely enough, are variable in brightness. Their\ndistance apart is 4\u2033.7. Their spectrum indicates that they are advanced\ntoward extinction many stages beyond our sun.\n\nThe star Zeta (\u03b6), one of those in the quadrilateral, is a closer\ndouble, distance about 1\u2033, and is binary, the period of revolution\nbeing about thirty-five years.\n\nAnd now for a great marvel. Let the eye range slowly from Eta (\u03b7)\ndirectly toward Zeta (\u03b6). When one-third of the distance between\nthe two stars has been passed, a faint, glimmering speck will be\nperceived. Perhaps you will need an opera-glass to make sure that you\nsee it. This is the \u201cGreat Cluster in Hercules.\u201d You must go to the\nsouthern hemisphere to find its match anywhere in the sky. It is a\nball of suns! Now you need a telescope. You _must have one_. You must\neither buy or borrow it, or you must pay a visit to an observatory,\nfor this is a thing that no intelligent human being in these days\ncan afford not to see. Can it be possible that any man can know that\nfifteen thousand suns are to be seen, burning in a compact globular\ncluster, and not long to regard them with his own eyes? Of what use is\ndescription in such a case? The language has not yet been invented to\ndepict such things. Human speech comes down to us from the times when\nmen did not need the tongue of the gods to tell what they saw. When\nGalileo invented the telescope, and Herschel multiplied its powers a\nthousandfold, they should have found a language fitted to describe\ntheir discoveries. But if you cannot get a look at the Hercules cluster\nthrough a powerful telescope, photography comes to your aid. Look at\none of the wonderful Lick or Yerkes photographs of it, and pause long\non what you see. Note the crowding of those suns toward the centre,\nnote the glittering spiral lines formed by those which seem streaming\nand hurrying from all sides to join the marvellous congregation--and\nthen turn again to that faint speck in the sky, which is all that the\nnaked eye reveals of the wonder, and reflect upon the meaning of space\nand the universe.\n\nWe now turn farther east, still keeping the eyes directed high in the\nsky, and just at the edge of the Milky Way, with two minute stars\nmaking a little triangle with it, we see Vega or Alpha Lyr\u00e6, the\nastonishing brilliant that flashes on the strings of the heavenly Lyre.\nAt the Vernal Equinox it was just rising far over in the northeast;\nnow it is the unquestioned queen of that quarter of the sky. I like to\nthink of Emerson when looking at that star. There is a sentence of his\nwhich reflects it like a mirror. When he strove to rouse the \u201csluggard\nintellect of this continent,\u201d to \u201clook from under its iron lids,\u201d he\ncould find no stronger image than that of poetry reviving here and\nleading in a new age, \u201cas the star in the constellation Harp, which\nnow flames in our zenith, astronomers announce, shall one day be the\nPole-star for a thousand years.\u201d\n\nOf the effect of the Precession of the Equinoxes, to which Emerson\nrefers, we have already spoken. But it is a long time in the future\nthat Vega will begin, or rather resume, its reign as the Star of\nthe North. And, curiously enough, when that time comes the northern\nhemisphere will have its Summer Solstice when the sun is just opposite\nto the place which it now occupies at that season, and when Antares\nwill be no more a summer star, but will flash its ruddy light upon the\nsnows of a winter longer and colder than the winters that we know,\nwhile Orion will blaze above the summer landscapes. This immense\nrevolution, some have thought, may be the measure of the \u201cGreat Year\u201d\nof Plato, and if the chronology adopted for dating the early remains of\ncivilization recently uncovered in Crete is correct, we have evidence\nthat mankind has persisted through one of these vast periods, and that\nnations flourished round the Mediterranean when Vega was formerly the\nPole-star.\n\nThe beauty of Vega, which has been admired and commented on from the\nearliest times, is much enhanced when it is viewed with a telescope.\nThen the blueness of its light becomes evident, and one is the more\nastonished at the unquestionable fact that it outshines the sun a\nhundred times. A _sapphire_ sun, a hundred times more brilliant than\nours! The proper motion of the solar system, which carries us through\nspace about twelve miles per second, is bearing us almost directly\ntoward Vega, so that as future ages unroll the star should become\nbrighter and brighter with decrease of distance, until eventually it\nmay outshine every other orb in the firmament, and put Sirius himself\nto shame by its overpowering splendor.\n\nThe little star Epsilon (\u03b5), the northernmost one of the pair near\nVega, is a celebrated quadruple, easily seen as such with a telescope\nof moderate power.\n\nA little less than half way from Beta (\u03b2) to Gamma (\u03b3) the telescope\ndiscovers the wonderful \u201cRing Nebula,\u201d a delicate circle of nebulous\nlight with a star in the centre. This star is more conspicuous in\nphotographs than in telescopic views. This object has been regarded as\na visual proof of the correctness of Laplace\u2019s theory of the origin of\nthe solar system from nebulous rings surrounding a central sun, but\nthe Lick photographs show that the ring in this case is of a strangely\ncomplex constitution. Beta is both a binary and a variable star.\n\nBuried in the Milky Way, east of Lyra, lies the great \u201cNorthern Cross\u201d\nin the constellation Cygnus. It is more perfect than the famous\n\u201cSouthern Cross,\u201d and much larger. The star Alpha (\u03b1), at the head\nof the main beam of the cross, is also called _Denib_, the \u201cTail,\u201d\nas it is situated in the tail of the \u201cSwan,\u201d Cygnus. Its parallax is\nundetermined, and Newcomb placed it in his \u201cXM\u201d class, described under\nSpica in Chapter I. The Milky Way is exceedingly beautiful in Cygnus.\nNote particularly the broad gaps and rifts in it. Around and above the\nhead of the cross there are dark spaces, which are specially impressive\nwhen the eyes are partly averted from them. Downward from Cygnus the\nstream of the galaxy is seen to be partially split longitudinally. It\nresembles a broad river meandering, in the droughts of the \u201cdog days,\u201d\nover flats and shallows, and interrupted with long sand-bars. How can\nstars have been thrown together into such forms? What whirls and eddies\nof the ether can have made these _pools of shining suns_?\n\nThe star in the foot of the cross, Beta (\u03b2), or _Albireo_--a beautiful\nname without signification, since Allen shows that it originated in a\nblunder (see his _Star Names and Their Meanings_)--is one of the most\nattractive objects in the heavens for those who are fortunate enough to\npossess a telescope. The smallest glass easily shows it to be double,\nand the combination is unrivalled for beauty, the larger star being a\npale topaz and the smaller a deep sapphire. Their magnitudes are three\nand seven, and their distance apart about 34\u2033. I have separated them\nwith a field-glass.\n\nCygnus contains one of the nearest stars in the sky, a twinkler not\ntoo easily seen with the naked eye--a striking proof of the fact that\nthe mere faintness of a star is in itself no indication of excessive\ndistance. This is known as 61 Cygni, and will be found on Chart\nX. It is a double, possible binary, easily separated with a small\ntelescope, the distance being about 21\u2033. The distance of 61 Cygni\nis about 40,000,000,000,000 miles. It was long known as the second\nnearest star in the sky, the nearest being Alpha Centauri in the\nsouthern hemisphere; but at least one nearer one has more lately been\ndiscovered, and it, too, is a very small star. The combined luminosity\nof the two stars in 61 Cygni is only one-tenth that of the sun. Amid\nso many giants it is reassuring to find a sun smaller than ours; it\nrestores our self-esteem to find that our solar hamlet is not the very\nleast in the empire of space.\n\nSoutheast of Cygnus, near the eastern shore of the starry river, is\nAquila, the \u201cEagle.\u201d Its chief star, Altair, \u201cEagle,\u201d recalls Antares,\nnot by its color, for it is not red but white, but by the singular\narrangement of two small stars standing one on either side of it. Here,\ntoo, the Milky Way is very splendid, attaining astonishing brightness\nlower down, in Scutum Sobieskii, \u201cSobieski\u2019s Shield.\u201d The naming of\nthis constellation was a posthumous reward to the heroic king, John\nSobieski, for saving Europe by the defeat of the Turks under the\nwalls of Vienna, after their victorious advance from Constantinople,\nemphasized in the public mind by the appearance of Halley\u2019s Comet, had\nseemed to threaten a Moslem conquest. Twice Halley\u2019s Comet had alarmed\nEurope in connection with the Turks, first in 1456, after they had\ntaken Constantinople, and again in 1682 when they swept upon Vienna,\nso that it was a natural thought to associate Sobieski\u2019s victory with\nsome \u201csign in the sky,\u201d and a more appropriate one could hardly have\nbeen found than the \u201cshield,\u201d bossed with star-clusters, which Hevelius\nselected for the purpose. The southern part of the constellation Aquila\nis sometimes called Antinous. For the beautiful Oriental legend of the\nSpinning Damsel and the Magpie Bridge connected with Aquila and Lyra,\nsee _Astronomy with the Naked Eye_. Newcomb gives Altair ten times the\nluminosity of the sun.\n\nThe constellations Delphinus and Anser et Vulpecula will be dealt with\nin the next chapter. In the mean time let us turn to the western half\nof the sky.\n\nJust west of the meridian, near the zenith, gleams the glorious\nNorthern Crown, Corona Borealis. The head of Serpens is right\nunderneath it. It is, perhaps, the most charming of all asterisms. It\ncould hardly be called anything else than a crown or a wreath. The\nperfection of the figure is surprising. If its stars were larger it\nwould be the cynosure of the sky, but small as they are they produce\nan effect of ensemble that could not have been exceeded if human hands\nhad arranged them there. The superior brightness of one of them,\nAlpha \u201cGemma,\u201d or \u201cThe Pearl,\u201d adds greatly to the effectiveness\nof the combination. It is the work of a master jeweller! Yet, as\nI have elsewhere shown, this curious assemblage of stars is but a\npassing phenomenon, for they are travelling in various directions,\nwith various speeds, and in the course of time the Northern Crown\nwill dissolve like a figure in the clouds. In Greek mythology it was\ngenerally called the Crown of Ariadne. Just under the star Epsilon (\u03b5)\nis a wonderful variable, which in 1866 suddenly blazed up to the second\nmagnitude, and was for a time regarded as a new star. Nothing is known\nof its periods of change. It is not now visible to the naked eye.\n\nWest of Corona the most conspicuous object is Arcturus in Bo\u00f6tes. This\nentire constellation is now well placed for observation. But first\na few words about Arcturus, a star of which one can never tire, so\nsteeped is it in the poetry and history of the most interesting nations\nof the past. Like Alpha Centauri, Arcturus was used as a \u201ctemple\nstar\u201d in both Egypt and Greece, and it was of much importance as a\nprognosticator of the seasons. When a conspicuous star was seen rising\njust ahead of the sun, it was said to rise heliacally, and it served\nas a sentinel to announce the oncoming day. To the priests this was\nimportant, because it warned them of the moment when it was necessary\nto begin their preparations for the sunrise ceremonies in the temples.\nTo the husbandman such a herald seemed specially connected with the\nparticular season in which it appeared. In this way Arcturus came to\ngive its name to the ancient Greek autumn. In Sophocles\u2019 _\u0152dipus the\nKing_ there is a passage which affords striking evidence of the popular\nknowledge of Arcturus in this connection. When the herdsman from Mount\nCith\u00e6ron is brought to prove that he had nurtured \u0152dipus as a child,\none of his former comrades, to recall the old man\u2019s recollections,\nreminds him that they had kept their flocks together \u201cthree whole\nhalf-years from Spring to Arcturus\u201d (meaning from Spring to Autumn,\nsince Arcturus then rose heliacally at the beginning of September).\nWhatever might be the local names for Autumn, over all the Greek world\nit was popularly known as the \u201ctime of Arcturus.\u201d\n\nAlthough the Revised Version has struck out Arcturus and substituted\n\u201cthe Bear\u201d in that famous passage in which the Almighty answers Job\n\u201cout of the whirlwind,\u201d yet for lovers of the Bible this will always be\n\u201cJob\u2019s Star,\u201d always surrounded to the imagination with the momentous\ncircumstances suggested by that tremendous and unanswerable demand:\n\n  \u201cCanst _thou_ call forth _Arcturus_ and his sons?\u201d\n\nNo scientific fact known about it--not its gigantic size, not\nits inexplicable flight through space--can be so imposing as the\nimpressions conveyed in its choice by Jehovah to illustrate His\nillimitable power. One likes to think that the Hebrew poet really did\nmean to write \u201cArcturus,\u201d for there is something sublime in the idea of\nrepresenting the Great Maker of All as calling one of His stars by name.\n\nArcturus is sometimes referred to under the name of _Arctophilax_, the\n\u201cBear-driver,\u201d a name properly belonging to the constellation Bo\u00f6tes.\nIn modern astronomical history it will always be memorable for the\npassage over it of the celebrated Comet of 1858, Donati\u2019s Comet. At one\ntime the star was almost involved in the head of the great comet, and\nyet it shone through the obstructing vapors with virtually undiminished\nlustre. It was a spectacle, said Professor Nichol, the like of which\nno one might see again though he should spend on earth fifty lives.\nAt the beginning the comet was a little plume of fire, \u201cshaped like a\nbird of paradise,\u201d but it soon brightened into a stupendous scimetar,\nbrandished in the sunset, and when it swept over Arcturus the whole\nastronomical world was watching to see what would happen to the star.\n\nAmong the other stars of Bo\u00f6tes, Epsilon (\u03b5) is specially worthy of\nnotice, being a remarkable binary of finely contrasted colors, orange\nand sea-green. The distance is 2\u2033.25, and the period of revolution long\nbut undetermined. Struve called this star \u201cPulcherrima,\u201d on account of\nits exceeding beauty.\n\nAlthough Arcturus by its splendor belittles the rest of the\nconstellation, yet it requires no difficult exercise of the imagination\nto see a giant form there, towering behind the Bear, and urging on his\ndogs in the chase. The dogs are represented by Canes Venatici, of the\nbeauty of whose chief star, Cor Caroli, I have spoken in the preceding\nchapter. In the upper part of Canes Venatici, about 3\u00b0 southwest\nof Benetnasch, is the celebrated \u201cWhirlpool Nebula\u201d of Lord Rosse,\nwhich modern photographs show in a form so suggestive of tremendous\ndisruptive forces that cosmogonists are at a loss to explain it.\n\nWe now drop down to Libra, the \u201cBalance,\u201d which lies just west of\nScorpio and east of Virgo. There is evidence that this constellation\noriginally represented the outstretched claws of the Scorpion. Yet as\nan independent constellation it is very ancient. It has only two stars\nof any considerable magnitude, Alpha (\u03b1) and Beta (\u03b2). The former must\nhave faded, for it is now the fainter. It lies almost on the ecliptic.\nThese stars are interesting on account of their curious names, which\nthemselves tend to prove that Libra once formed a part of Scorpio.\nAlpha is Zubenelgenubi, the \u201cSouthern Claw,\u201d and Beta Zubeneschemali,\nthe \u201cNorthern Claw.\u201d These titles, as Allen shows, have been derived\nthrough the Arabic from the Greek names current in the time of Ptolemy.\nThe first is yellowish-white, and the second pale green. Any good eye\ndetects the difference of color at a glance, although the stars are\nabout ten degrees apart. Zubenelgenubi is widely double, separable with\nan opera-glass.\n\nAlong the western horizon we recognize our old friends Virgo, Corvus,\nand Leo, while high in the northwest is Ursa Major, head downward, and\ndirectly in the north Ursa Minor, standing on the end of his tail,\npoised like an acrobat on Polaris. The head of Draco shows finely east\nof the meridian, and low down in the northeast is the \u201cLaconian Key\u201d of\nCassiopeia. But that is for another evening.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nTHE EVENING SKY AT THE AUTUMNAL EQUINOX\n\n  \u201cWhen descends on the Atlantic\n  The gigantic\n    Storm-wind of the Equinox,\n  Landward in his wrath he scourges\n  The toiling surges,\n    Laden with sea-weed from the rocks.\u201d\n\n\nLongfellow\u2019s vivid lines reproduce the popular impression of the\ncharacter of the season when the descending sun again touches the\nequator, giving the whole world once more days and nights of equal\nlength, before he dips to the south and leaves the northern hemisphere\nto face the oncoming blasts of winter. There is no superstition more\ndeeply planted than that of the \u201cequinoctial storms.\u201d There _are_\nsuch storms, it is true, but they by no means always burst at the\nepoch of the Equinox. The readjustment of atmospheric conditions goes\non gradually, and there is often, just at the equinoctial moment, a\nspell of serene weather that can hardly be matched at any other season\nof the year. The atmosphere, recovered from the excessive heats of\nsummer, possesses a quality of softness and \u201cmisty fruitfulness\u201d that\ntranquillizes the spirit and makes nature doubly charming. It is the\nlate afternoon of the year, when life, refreshed by the siestas of\nsummer, resumes its activity, and the heavens no less than the face of\nthe earth greet the eye with a smile of divine beauty.\n\nTo every season its flowers--and to every season its stars. The gardens\nof the sky are not the same in autumn as in summer, either in their\narrangement or in the peculiarities of their bloom. There is less\nparade of flaming beauty, but the richness of the _coup d\u2019\u0153il_ is not\ninferior. And just as in our September parterres some of the summer\nbeauties remain, though a little faded, to support with their charms\ntheir stately successors, so in the skies of autumn a few of the summer\nstars are yet seen, though somewhat robbed of their pristine splendor\nas they sink toward the sunset. The garland of the Milky Way has now\nbeen flung all across the firmament, from northeast to southwest, and\nwhile Vega and Altair hang half-way down the curtain of the west,\nrecalling the glories of the solstice, Capella appears rising in the\nnortheast, and Cassiopeia, not less beautiful in the sky than when she\nawoke the jealousy of the sea-nymphs, is seen seated in her \u201cshiny\nchair\u201d east of the meridian in the north. Between Cassiopeia and\nCapella flashes Perseus, with his uplifted sword marked by a curve of\nstars embedded in the Milky Way, and above Perseus stands Andromeda,\nupright, with her feet toward her rescuer and her head touching\nthe \u201cGreat Square of Pegasus,\u201d near the middle of the sky, east of\nthe meridian. Cepheus, the King, is on the meridian above the pole.\nCassiopeia, Cepheus, Andromeda, and Perseus constitute the \u201cRoyal\nFamily\u201d of the sky, more enduring than the proud dynasties that by\nturns have ruled terrestrial affairs.\n\n[Illustration: CHART III--THE AUTUMN EVENING SKY]\n\nLow down in the south, east of the meridian, glows Fomalhaut, the\n\u201cFish\u2019s Mouth,\u201d the leading and the only bright star of Piscis\nAustrinus, the \u201cSouthern Fish.\u201d With this singular star we may begin\nour description of the beauties of the autumn sky. Fomalhaut well\ndeserves the epithet singular, if for nothing else than on account\nof its loneliness. In this respect it is more remarkable than Cor\nHydr\u00e6, which it resembles in its ruddy color. Fomalhaut is the\ncharacteristic star of autumn in our latitudes, for the same reasons\nthat cause Antares to represent the summer. Like Antares, it startles\nthe wandering eye and fixes the attention, although, unlike the great\nstar of Scorpio, it has no brilliant _entourage_ to emphasize its\nsupremacy over the quarter of the sky where it shines. It is one of\nthe sailors\u2019 stars. To me Fomalhaut is full of boyhood memories and\nimpressions gained when I learned the stars in the country, among the\nhills that shut in the Schoharie before it pours out into the valley of\nthe Mohawk. Fortunately, Thomas Dick\u2019s works and Burritt\u2019s _Geography\nof the Heavens_ had a place in our house, and neither _The Arabian\nNights_ nor _The Swiss Family Robinson_ was able to dull my appetite\nfor them. In the course of time I knew all the great stars by name, and\nfound a wonderful pleasure in their acquaintance, although at times\nthey daunted me with their imposing associations with Egypt, the Nile,\nBabylonia, and everything that is most ancient. I shall never forget\nFomalhaut flashing along in the south, just skipping the hilltops on an\nautumn night. A great star is never so imposing nor so mysterious as\nwhen it thus appears to be watching the earth.\n\nHow immensely would the interest of many travellers\u2019 tales be\nheightened if only they had known the names of the stars whose\nappearance they have recorded. When you have the name of the star that\nwas seen, the season and the hour of the night are fixed at once,\nand the whole scene is filled with new life. When an Alpine climber,\nwaiting in his lonely camp high on the mountain-side for the coming of\nday, tells me, \u201cI saw Sirius glancing at us over a lofty peak far in\nthe east,\u201d I know immediately the approximate time of night and the\naspect of the heavens, and the narrative gains in vividness; but if\nhe says merely that he saw \u201ca star\u201d his stroke of description misses.\nAnd, then, the names of many of the stars, by their oddity and beauty,\nenrich the page and awake the imagination. They are, in themselves, an\nincantation.\n\nThe lover of the stars is grateful for any reference to them by a\ngreat writer, and yet he is often disappointed by the inadequacy\nof descriptions that might easily have been made memorable if only\ntheir authors had known the starry heavens a little better. How\ndisappointing, for instance, is this passage in R. H. Dana\u2019s _Two Years\nbefore the Mast_:\n\n \u201cWednesday, November 5th--The weather was fine during the previous\n night, and we had a clear view of the Magellan Clouds and of the\n Southern Cross. The Magellan Clouds consist of three small nebul\u00e6 in\n the southern part of the heavens--two bright, like the Milky Way, and\n one dark. They are first seen just above the horizon after crossing\n the southern tropic. When off Cape Horn they are nearly overhead. The\n Cross is composed of four stars in that form, and it is said to be the\n brightest constellation in the heavens.\u201d\n\nThat is all, and the reader\u2019s dissatisfaction is not confined to the\nevidence of the writer\u2019s lack of familiarity with the stars, but\nbecomes yet keener when he reflects upon the brilliant picture which\nMr. Dana\u2019s powers of description should have enabled him to make of\nthose strange sights of the southern sky, which, in his day, were so\nrarely seen by northern eyes.\n\nOn the equator above Fomalhaut, and close to the meridian, appears a\ncurious group of stars in the form of a letter Y. They mark the hand\nand urn of Aquarius, the \u201cWaterman.\u201d A few degrees westward from this\nfigure shines the Alpha (\u03b1) of the constellation, bearing the strange\nname Sadalmelik, the \u201cKing\u2019s Luck,\u201d or \u201cLucky One.\u201d It is situated\nin the Waterman\u2019s right shoulder, while Beta (\u03b2), some twelve degrees\nfarther west, marks the left shoulder. Beta\u2019s distinctive name is\nSadalsuud, the \u201cLuckiest of the Lucky.\u201d Several other stars in this\nconstellation have names implying good-fortune. The Arabs saw the\nY-shaped figure, already referred to, as a tent, and the star Gamma\n(\u03b3) in this group is called Sadachbiah, from an Arabic phrase which\nProfessor Whitney translates \u201cFelicity of Tents.\u201d Upon this R. H. Allen\nremarks that the star probably got its name from the fact that it rose\nwith its companions in the morning twilight of spring, \u201cwhen, after\nthe winter\u2019s want and suffering, the nomads\u2019 tents were raised on the\nfreshening pastures, and the pleasant weather set in.\u201d The star Zeta\n(\u03b6), in this same figure, is a long-period binary, probably 750 years,\nand a beautiful telescopic object, the distance being a little more\nthan 3\u2033, while the two stars are nearly equal, and very white, although\none of them seems whiter than the other.\n\nIt will be observed that the outline of the constellation Aquarius is\nvery curious, somewhat resembling that of the State of Louisiana tipped\non its side. The broader part of it runs down toward Fomalhaut, and the\nnorthern part extends westward, like an L added to a house, between\nEquuleus and Capricornus. The latter, the constellation of the \u201cGoat,\u201d\nis relatively small and compact. Its two most interesting stars are\nAlpha (\u03b1), or Algedi, the \u201cGoat,\u201d and Beta (\u03b2), or Dabih (signification\nuncertain), both in one of the horns of the imaginary animal. Each of\nthese stars is a wide double. The distance between the Alphas is 373\u2033,\nand that between the Betas 205\u2033, the latter being more than a tenth\nof the apparent diameter of the moon. A good eye sees at once that\nAlpha is double; but the two stars in Beta cannot be seen without a\nglass, because one of them is below the sixth magnitude, the _minimum\nvisible_ for the naked eye. Each of the stars in Beta is a telescopic\ndouble. The Goat heads westward, and the stars Delta (\u03b4) and Gamma\n(\u03b3) are in his tail. This constellation has given us our Tropic of\nCapricorn, because the place of the winter solstice was once within its\nboundaries, although now we find it far west, in Sagittarius.\n\nAbove the head of Capricornus we recognize our old acquaintance Altair,\nin the Eagle, and east of this the singular little constellation of\nDelphinus, the \u201cDolphin,\u201d often called \u201cJob\u2019s Coffin,\u201d a name for\nwhich I have never been able to find any explanation. Like all small\nconstellations whose stars are comparatively close together, it\nimmediately attracts the eye. None of its stars exceeds the fourth\nmagnitude; but three of them, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, are telescopic\ndoubles, the last named being particularly beautiful on account of the\ncontrast of colors, gold and green; distance 11\u2033.\n\nDirectly north of Altair is the very small constellation of Sagitta,\nthe \u201cArrow,\u201d interesting when viewed with an opera-glass for its row of\nlittle stars from which, as from a maypole lying horizontally, depend\nloops of still smaller stars looking like garlands. In ancient times\nthis was sometimes called \u201cCupid\u2019s Arrow,\u201d but they did not venture to\nrepresent the little god himself. Above Sagitta are the small stars\nconstituting the double constellation of Vulpecula et Anser, the\n\u201cLittle Fox and the Goose.\u201d\n\nSimply pausing to recognize the presence of the Northern Cross, we\nturn to the eastern side of the meridian, where we find Pegasus, with\nhis Great Square. This is one of the most conspicuous figures in the\nsky. The star at the northeastern corner of the square is Alpheratz,\nof which I have spoken in the Introduction, as belonging in common to\nAndromeda and Pegasus. When we come to Cassiopeia I shall point out\na remarkable fact relating to Alpheratz and its twin, Gamma Pegasi,\nabout 15 degrees directly south. Every lover of the \u201cclassics\u201d of\ncourse feels a thrill of pleasure in seeing Pegasus in the sky, \u201cin\nwild flight and free.\u201d One can spare many of the heroes for the sake\nof giving him room. Shakespeare\u2019s references to the constellations are\nmuch less frequent and definite than one could wish, but he has clearly\nmentioned one or two, and it may be that he had the starry eidolon of\nthe Winged Horse in his eye when he wrote, in _Troilus and Cressida_:\n\n  \u201cBut let the ruffian Boreas once enrage\n  The gentle Thetis, and anon behold\n  The strong-ribbed bark through liquid mountains cut,\n  Bounding between the two moist elements\n  Like Perseus\u2019 horse.\u201d\n\nThe constellation extends far westward from the Square, and in the\nimaginative sky pictures that illustrate old charts of the heavens the\nstar Epsilon (\u03b5) is in the nose of Pegasus, as he stretches out his\nneck to reach his foal, Equuleus. But the horse, with his feet toward\nthe north, is shown upside down, unless you turn your back to the south\nwhen looking at him. The star Beta (\u03b2) is attractive on account of its\nneighbors forming a striking triangle with it; but the space within the\nSquare is relatively vacant. Alpha (\u03b1) and Beta (\u03b2) are respectively\nMarkab, the \u201cSaddle,\u201d and Scheat (signification uncertain).\n\nSouth of the Square of Pegasus we see the western part of the\nconstellation of Pisces, whose small stars run in streams toward the\neastern horizon. Pisces furnishes one of the most remarkable examples\nof this phenomenon, in which the stars are seen arrayed in long,\nwinding lines, like buttercups following a brook. Cetus is also seen\nrising south of Pisces; but we shall deal with these constellations\nlater. Meanwhile we return to Alpheratz, at the northeast corner of\nthe Square of Pegasus. The name is derived from an Arabic phrase\nmeaning the \u201cHorse\u2019s Navel\u201d; but the star is now generally associated\nwith Andromeda, and is, indeed, the Alpha of that constellation, and\nshines on the maiden\u2019s head. The star Delta (\u03b4), in Andromeda, marks\nher breast, and her extended arms and chained hands are shown by\nrows and groups of small stars on the north and south. Beta (\u03b2), or\nMirach, is in her girdle, and the two small stars northwest of it lead\nthe eye to one of the most wonderful objects in the sky--the Great\nAndromeda Nebula. You may detect it as a misty speck with the naked\neye; an opera-glass will show you plainly that it is a little luminous\ncloud. In Chart X its position is indicated by a little circle near\nthe star Nu (\u03bd). In a telescope it appears of a spindle shape, with\na bright axis, but the best views of it are afforded by photography.\nOn the photographic plate, exposed continuously for hours to its\nrays, it gradually builds up its marvellous form--the great central\ncondensation, with the encircling spirals, emerging in all their\nstrange splendor. It resembles a whirlwind of snow, and the appearance\nof swift motion and terrific force is startling. Its spectrum, instead\nof being that characteristic of gases, indicates that it consists\nprincipally of matter in a star-like state of condensation, and some\nhave imagined that it is an outside universe, composed of stars too\ndistant to be separately distinguished, and arrayed in mighty spirals,\nwhich recall the form of the Milky Way. The latest investigations show\nevidence, however, that it is partly nebular in constitution. These\nthings once known, the contemplative eye is drawn to that misty speck\nas to a magnet.\n\nThe star Gamma (\u03b3), or Almaack, the \u201cBadger,\u201d is in Andromeda\u2019s foot.\nIt is a wonderful triple star, whose largest member is orange in color,\nthe second emerald-green, and the third blue. The two larger stars are\neasily seen with an ordinary telescope, the distance between them\nbeing about 10\u2033, but the third is difficult, the distance from the\nsecond being, in 1908, only 0\u2033.45. The last two form a binary, with a\nperiod of about fifty-four years. When they are nearest to each other\nno telescope can separate them. The colors of the two largest stars\nare very striking, and yet some eyes seem incapable of appreciating\nthem. This is also true of many separate stars in the sky which possess\ndistinctive tints. It is a fine test of the chromatic capacity of the\neye to be able to enjoy the differences among the hues of the stars.\nColor-blindness is far more common than is usually suspected, and is\napt to manifest itself in this way when not otherwise noticed. From\ntheoretical considerations Holmgren has shown that three varieties of\ncolor-blindness may exist: first, where the sense is defective for only\none color, either red, green, or violet; second, where two colors,\neither red and green or red and violet, are not perceived; and third,\nwhere the defect extends to three colors, including red, green, and\nviolet. A person suffering from either of these forms of blindness\nwould lose much of the peculiar beauty exhibited by certain stars and\ncombinations of stars.\n\nTo the right of Almaack, as one faces north, is the little\nconstellation of Triangulum, and beyond that, in the same direction,\nAries, the \u201cRam,\u201d clearly marked by three stars, the two smaller\nof which are quite close together. The largest star, Alpha (\u03b1), is\ncalled Hamal, the \u201cRam,\u201d or \u201cSheep\u201d; and the next largest, Beta (\u03b2),\nSheratan, the \u201cSign,\u201d this name being due to the fact that in the days\nof Hipparchus Sheratan marked the place of the Vernal Equinox, and\nconsequently the point of beginning of the year, of which it was the\nsign. Gamma (\u03b3), the companion of Sheratan, sometimes called Mesarthim\n(signification uncertain), is a beautiful telescopic double whose\ncomponents are 8\u2033.8 apart. The smaller one has a curious tint which\nWebb and others have described as \u201cgray.\u201d\n\nAries was originally the leader of the zodiac, but the Precession\nof the Equinoxes has now thrown it into second place, and brought\nPisces to the front, the twelve signs of the zodiac being like a fixed\ncircular framework through which the constellations drift toward\nthe east. The _sign_ Aries remains the first of the zodiac, but is\noccupied by the constellation Pisces. Is there in any language a word\nmore mysteriously impressive than \u201czodiac\u201d? Astrological superstition,\nperhaps, partly accounts for this. The word comes from the Greek\nfor \u201canimal,\u201d because nearly all the constellations of the zodiacal\ncircle are representations of animals. It surrounds the sky with a\ngreat menagerie of starry phantasms, through the midst of which the\nsun pursues his annual round. When he enters the sign of Aries spring\ncommences; when he enters Cancer summer reigns; when he reaches Libra\nit is the beginning of autumn, and when he is in Capricorn winter\nis at hand. We have nothing quite equal to the old Greek story of\nPhaeton begging from his father, Ph\u0153bus Apollo, the privilege of\ndriving the Chariot of the Sun, and losing his way through terror\nof the threatening forms amid which lay his course--the \u201cScorpion,\u201d\nwith his fiery sting uplifted to strike; the huge \u201cCrab,\u201d sprawling\nacross the way; the fierce \u201cRam,\u201d with lowered head; the great \u201cBull,\u201d\ncharging headlong upon him; the terrible \u201cLion,\u201d with bristling mane;\nthe \u201cArcher,\u201d with bow bent and arrow aimed; the \u201cGoat,\u201d with crooked,\nthreatening horns; the sturdy \u201cWaterman,\u201d emptying his vast urn in\na raging flood; the balance of \u201cLibra\u201d extended as if to weigh his\nfate--even the benign aspect of the \u201cTwins\u201d and the gentle look of the\nsedate \u201cVirgin\u201d could not restore his equanimity. It was the wildest of\nall wild rides, and Phaeton was the precursor of the modern chauffeur\ngone mad with the speed of his flight, and crazed by the pursuit of\nphantoms which rise remorselessly in his path. It was probably in Aries\nthat the inventors of the story imagined the beginning of the adventure.\n\nBelow the feet of Andromeda, in the northeast, appears Perseus,\nher rescuer, hurrying to the combat with the oncoming Sea Monster,\nand carrying the blood-freezing head of Medusa in one hand and his\ndiamond-hilted sword in the other. He wraps the glory of the Milky Way\naround him like a flying mantle, and brandished in the direction of\nCassiopeia, the maiden\u2019s mother, and of King Cepheus, her father, is\nseen his magic blade, made splendid in the sky by one of the finest\nassemblages of small stars that can anywhere be seen. This beautiful\nstar-swarm, visible to the naked eye as a glowing patch in the Milky\nWay, is indicated in Chart X by a double cluster of dots above the\nstar Eta (\u03b7). Seen with a powerful opera-glass, or better with a small\ntelescope, it is an object that one can never cease to admire and\nwonder at. It is so bright that the unassisted eye sees it as soon as\nit is directed toward that part of the sky. It seems to throw a halo\nover the surrounding sky, as if at that point the galaxy had been\ntied into a gleaming knot. It is popularly called the \u201cSword Hand of\nPerseus.\u201d But how inadequate seems such terrestrial imagery when we\nreflect that here a vast chaotic nebula has been, through \u00e6ons of\nevolution, transformed into a kingdom of starry beauty.\n\nThe star Alpha (\u03b1) Persei, also known as Algenib (Arabic _Al Janib_,\nthe \u201cSide\u201d), is the centre of a bending row following the curve\nof the Milky Way. The appearance of this curve of stars is very\nattractive to the eye. Algenib is a beautiful star, allied to our sun\nin spectroscopic character, and approaching us at the rate of about\n560,000 miles per day.\n\nBut the greatest marvel of Perseus is the \u201cDemon Star,\u201d Algol, in\nthe head of Medusa, which is represented depending from the hero\u2019s\nright hand. Algol bears the Greek letter Beta (\u03b2). It is the most\nwonderful of variables, and its variations can be watched without any\ninstrumental assistance. For the greater part of the time it is of\nnearly the second magnitude; but once every two days, twenty hours,\nand forty-nine seconds it begins suddenly to lose light, and in about\nfour hours or less it fades to nearly the fourth magnitude, being then\nno brighter than some of the faint stars around it. Almost immediately\nit begins to brighten again, and in the course of about three hours is\nseen shining with its pristine splendor. The cause of these singular\nvariations is believed to be the existence of a dark star, or a mass of\nmeteors, revolving round Algol at such close quarters that a distance\nof only 3,000,000 miles separates the centres of the two. Algol itself\nis demonstrably considerably larger than our sun, but of less density.\nThe Arabic name for this star was _Al Ghul_, the \u201cDemon,\u201d or \u201cFiend of\nthe Woods,\u201d and our word ghoul comes from it. The imagination of a Poe\ncould not have represented a more startling thing--a sun that winks\nlike a gloating demon! One may easily cultivate an uncanny feeling\nwhile watching it. No one need be surprised that the astrologers make\nmuch of the malign influence of Algol. If one had faith in them, one\nmight as well be born with the millstone of fate tied to his neck as to\nhave Algol in his nativity.\n\nBelow Perseus, and not very high above the horizon, sparkles the\nbrilliant Capella, but that is for the next chapter. We turn to\nCassiopeia. Her \u201cW,\u201d or \u201cLaconian Key,\u201d is a familiar asterism to\nall who know anything at all of the starry heavens. The five stars\nforming this figure are also represented as marking the Chair in which\nthe unfortunate though beautiful queen sits. There is a delightful\nreference to this \u201cChair\u201d in Xavier de Maistre\u2019s _Exp\u00e9dition Nocturne\nautour de ma Chambre_. When the hero discovers the slipper of his fair\nneighbor of the upper flat visible on the balcony above, he wishes \u201cto\ncompare the pleasure that a modest man may feel in contemplating a\nlady\u2019s slipper with that imparted by the contemplation of the stars.\u201d\nAccordingly, he chooses the first constellation that he can see. \u201cIt\nwas, if I mistake not, Cassiopeia\u2019s Chair which I saw over my head, and\nI looked by turns at the constellation and the slipper, the slipper\nand the constellation. I perceived then that these two sensations were\nof a totally different nature; the one was in my head, while the other\nseemed to me to have its seat in the region of the heart.\u201d\n\nThe names of three of the five stars forming the \u201cChair\u201d are: Alpha (\u03b1)\nSchedar (from _Al Sadr_, the \u201cBreast\u201d); Beta (\u03b2) Caph (Arabic _Kaff_,\n\u201cHand\u201d); and Delta (\u03b4) Ruchbah or Rucbar, the \u201cKnee.\u201d Caph and Ruchbar\nare of particular interest, the first because, together with Alpheratz\nand Gamma Pegasi (often called Algenib, although that name belongs\nto Alpha Persei), it lies almost exactly on the Equinoctial Colure,\nor First Meridian of the Heavens; and Ruchbah, because, as explained\nin Chapter I, it lies in a line with Polaris and the true pole, thus\nserving to indicate the position of Polaris with regard to the pole at\nany time. Caph, Alpheratz, and Gamma Pegasi are often called the \u201cThree\nGuides,\u201d because, as just explained, they graphically show the line of\nthe Equinoctial Colure, which is a great circle passing through the\npole and cutting the equator at the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes. On\nthe opposite side of the pole this line passes between the stars Gamma\n(\u03b3) and Delta (\u03b4) in Ursa Major.\n\nThe star Eta (\u03b7) is an extremely beautiful binary, period about two\nhundred years, distance at present more than 6\u2033. The combination of\ncolors is especially remarkable, the larger component being orange, and\nthe smaller purple. Piazzi Smyth saw the color of the smaller star as\n\u201cIndian red,\u201d and others have variously called it \u201cgarnet,\u201d \u201cviolet,\u201d\nand, curiously enough, considering the general opinion to the contrary,\n\u201cgreen.\u201d There is no doubt, whatever the exact hue may be, that this\nstar wears a livery distinguishing it from any other in the sky. It is\nhardly an exaggeration to say that there is as great a variety of color\ntones among stars as among flowers. Although the great majority of\nstars approximate to white, there are, nevertheless, red stars, green\nstars, blue stars, lilac stars, yellow stars, orange stars, indigo\nstars, and violet stars, and stars of other tints and shades. All of\nthose which are deeply colored are linked together in close pairs, but\nthe colors they exhibit are not an effect of contrast. It is wonderful\nto think of _suns_ of such hues, but _there they are_! And, after all,\nit would be no more difficult to account for the colors of stars than\nfor those of flowers. But to live under a purple or an emerald sun\nmight not be as agreeable as life in the rays of our white orb, whose\nlight splits into rainbows, as light of a single primary color could\nnot do. A flower-garden under a green sun would not be the marvel of\nprismatic hues that it is in our world.[1]\n\nCassiopeia is memorable for being the scene of one of the greatest\nastronomical occurrences on record. Near the star Kappa (\u03ba), in 1572,\nappeared the most splendid new star that has ever been seen. It is\nknown as \u201cTycho\u2019s Star,\u201d the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe having been\nan assiduous student of the wonderful phenomenon during the sixteen\nmonths that it remained visible. There is a red variable star of less\nthan the tenth magnitude quite close to the spot where Tycho recorded\nthe appearance of his _nova_, and it has been thought that this may\nbe the mysterious object itself. In 1901 a new star, almost equal in\nbrilliance to Tycho\u2019s, suddenly burst out in Perseus, between Algol\nand Algenib, and these two so similar phenomena occurring in the same\nquarter of the heavens are usually linked together in the discussion\nof new stars. The reader who wishes more particulars about these stars\nmay consult _Curiosities of the Sky_.\n\nThe background of the sky around Cassiopeia is a magnificent field for\nthe opera-glass and the telescope. In sweeping over it one is reminded\nof Jean Paul Richter\u2019s _Dream of the Universe_:\n\n \u201cThus we flew on through the starry wildernesses; one heaven after\n another unfurled its immeasurable banners before us and then rolled\n up behind us; galaxy behind galaxy towered up into solemn altitudes\n before which the spirit shuddered; and they stood in long array,\n through which the Infinite Beings might pass in progress. Sometimes\n the Form that lightened would outfly my weary thoughts, and then it\n would be seen far off before me like a coruscation among the stars,\n till suddenly I thought to myself the thought of \u2018There,\u2019 and then\n I was at its side. But as we were thus swallowed up by one abyss of\n stars after another, and the heavens above our eyes were not emptier,\n neither were the heavens below them fuller; and as suns without\n intermission fell into the solar ocean like waterspouts of a storm\n which fall into the ocean of waters, then at length the human heart\n within me was overburdened and weary, and yearned after some narrow\n cell or quiet oratory in this metropolitan cathedral of the universe.\n And I said to the Form at my side: \u2018O Spirit! has then this universe\n no end?\u2019 And the Form answered and said, \u2018Lo! it has no beginning!\u2019\u201d\n\nWestward from Cassiopeia, directly over the pole, and lying athwart the\nmeridian, is the constellation of Cepheus, the King, less conspicuous\nthan that of his queen, Cassiopeia, but equally ancient. Its leading\nstar, Alpha (\u03b1), also called Alderamin, the \u201cRight Arm,\u201d is a\ncandidate for the great office of Pole-star, which it will occupy in\nabout 5500 years. Beta (\u03b2), the second in rank, is named Alfirk, the\n\u201cFlock\u201d or \u201cHerd.\u201d If you are sweeping here with an opera-glass you\nwill perceive, about half-way between Alpha (\u03b1) and Zeta (\u03b6), a small\nstar which will at once arrest your attention by its color. It is the\ncelebrated \u201cGarnet Star\u201d of Sir William Herschel, who was greatly\nimpressed by its brilliant hue, declaring it to be the most deeply\ncolored star that the naked eye can find in the sky. But its color is\nnot so striking unless a glass be used.\n\nLow down in the north-northwest we see the Great Dipper, above it the\ncoiling form and diamond head of Draco, and then, still higher, the\nNorthern Cross and Vega, bright as a jewel. Hercules and the Northern\nCrown are near setting in the northwest.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The reader who is curious concerning such matters is advised\nto consult a paper by Dr. Louis Bell on \u201cStar Colors,\u201d in the\n_Astrophysical Journal_ (vol. xxi, No. 3, April, 1910). Dr. Bell\u2019s\nexperiments with artificial stars seem to show that physiological\neffects play a great part in producing the pronounced colors of the\nsmall stars in many telescopic doubles. The paper is very interesting,\nespecially in its description of a startling imitation of the singular\ncluster, Kappa (\u03ba) Crucis, which Sir John Herschel described as\nresembling a gorgeous piece of colored jewelry. But, whatever part\nphysiological optics may play in the phenomena of colored doubles, it\nis certain that many single stars, including some of great magnitude,\npossess distinctive tints. Compare, for instance, Castor and Pollux or\nRigel and Betelgeuse. Aldebaran and Betelgeuse are both reddish, yet\nthe color tones that they exhibit are clearly different.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nTHE EVENING SKY AT THE WINTER SOLSTICE\n\n\nThe magic of the starry heavens does not fail with the decline of\nthe sun in winter, but, on the contrary, increases in power when the\ncurtains of the night begin to close so early that by six o\u2019clock the\ntwilight is gone and the firmament has become a dome of jet ablaze with\nclusters of living gems. And when the snows arrive, mantling the hills\nwith glistening ermine, the coruscating splendor of the sky seems to be\nredoubled. If I were to choose a time most suitable for interesting a\nnovice in the beauties and wonders of uranography, I would select the\nwinter, and I would lead my acolyte, on a clear, frosty night, when the\nlandscape was glittering with crusted snow, upon some eminence where\nthe curve of the horizon was broken only by the leafless tops of a few\ntrees, through which the rising stars would flash like electric lamps.\nThe accord between the stars and the seasons is never more evident than\nat such a time and in such a place, and the psychology of the stars is\nthen most strongly felt. When the earth is locked fast in the bonds\nof winter the sparkling heavens seem most alive. I would have, if it\nwere possible, a clump of dark pines or hemlocks near the place of\nobservation, throwing their shadows on the snow, while Sirius in all\nits wild beauty blazed above them, and Aldebaran, Rigel, and Betelgeuse\nfilled the vibrant air about them with jewelled lances of prismatic\nlight. Then the sound of sleigh-bells in the resonant atmosphere would\nseem an aerial music shaken from the scintillant sky, and a lurking\nfox, stealing from his den in the edge of the shadows, would appear\ntimorously conscious of the splendor over his head. The nocturnal\nanimals know a day more glorious than ours, but it is never so glorious\nas when its multi-colored rays splinter upon crystalled hills at the\nwinter solstice.\n\nNow the greatest of the constellations reign in the sky. Orion is\nhigh up in the southeast, and around him are arrayed his brilliant\nattendants and companions--toward the west Taurus, with Aldebaran and\nthe glittering Pleiades; above, Auriga and Gemini dipping their feet in\nthe Milky Way; in the east, Canis Minor, with great, steady Procyon,\nand Canis Major proclaiming his precedence with flaming Sirius, the\nKing of the Stars. We cannot do better than begin with this starry\nmonarch and his constellation.\n\n[Illustration: CHART IV--THE WINTER EVENING SKY]\n\nTo me Sirius will always remain associated with the memory of Christmas\nsleigh-bells and the thrilling creak of runners on crisp, hard snow,\nfor it was during a drive home from a \u201cChristmas-tree\u201d in a country\nchurch that I first made the acquaintance of that imperial star. It\nseemed to me more brilliantly beautiful than any of the dazzling\ngifts that had hung so magically on the illuminated tree. Its splendor\nis unearthly, putting diamonds and sapphires to shame. How people can\nlive and be happy without ever gazing at such an object surpasses the\nunderstanding of any one who has once beheld and yielded to its charm.\nThe splendors of Aladdin\u2019s Cave are for children, and fade in the light\nof advancing life, but these glories of the universe are for men and\nwomen, and grow brighter with the years.\n\nThe renown of Sirius is as ancient as the human race. There has never\nbeen a time or a people in which or by whom it was not worshipped,\nreverenced, and admired. To the builders of the Egyptian temples and\npyramids it was an object as familiar as the sun itself. Its name is\nusually regarded as being derived from the Greek \u03a3\u03b5\u03af\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2, the \u201cBright\nor Shining One,\u201d but it is also thought that it may be connected with\nOsiris. The familiar title of the \u201cDog Star\u201d comes from its association\nwith the _dies caniculari\u00e6_ of the Romans.\n\n\u201cAs the movable Egyptian year,\u201d says George Cornewell Lewis, \u201cwas held\nto have originally begun at the heliacal rising of the Dog Star, which\nwas contemporary with the ordinary commencement of the inundation of\nthe Nile, this period was, by late writers, entitled the Canicular, or\nSothiac, period, Sothis being the Egyptian name for the Dog Star.\u201d\n\nNorman Lockyer identifies Sirius with the goddess Isis, or Hathor, who\nwas personified by that star, and the temple of Isis at Dendera was,\nhe avers, built to watch it. \u201cIt has been pointed out, times without\nnumber,\u201d he adds, \u201cthat the inscriptions indicate that by far the most\nimportant astronomical event in Egyptian history was the rising of the\nstar Sirius at this precise time.\u201d\n\nSirius has sometimes been identified with the \u201cMazzaroth\u201d of the Book\nof Job.\n\nThe great star is worthy of all its fame, not only by its magnificent\nbeauty, but by the revelations which modern science has afforded us\nconcerning it. While not comparable in actual luminosity with Rigel,\nCanopus, or even Arcturus, it immensely outshines the best of them to\nour eyes because of its relative nearness. Its distance is only about\n50,000,000,000,000 miles (parallax 0\u2033.37), so that it is really one of\nthe nearest stars in the sky. Light requires about nine years to come\nto us from Sirius. Outshining the sun at least thirty times, it is so\nbright, even at that distance, that a special rank has been given to\nit in stellar photometry. Formerly all very bright stars were ranked\nas of the first magnitude, but greater exactness is now employed, the\nnaked-eye stars being divided among eight magnitudes, running from\n6 up to -1. Thus the faintest star visible to the naked eye is of\nmagnitude 6; a star 2.51 times brighter is of magnitude 5; a star 2.51\ntimes brighter than that is of magnitude 4, and so on up to magnitude\n1. A star 2.51 times brighter than magnitude 1 is of magnitude 0; and\none 2.51 times brighter than the 0 magnitude is of magnitude -1, a\ndegree of brilliance which is attained by Sirius alone. In fact, Sirius\nexceeds magnitude -1, its real rank being -1.6. On the same scale the\nmagnitude of the sun would be -26.3. The standard first magnitude s\nusually taken as being represented by the star Altair, although that\nstar is not _exactly_ of that magnitude. As a ready rule it may be\nsaid that each magnitude is two and a half times brighter than the\nnext below it, and a difference of six magnitudes corresponds to an\nincrease of one hundred times in brilliance. Sirius is about ten times\nas bright as Altair. While, if _seen from the same distance_, Sirius\nwould appear at least thirty times as bright as the sun, at our actual\ndistance from both the light received from the sun is to that received\nfrom Sirius in the ratio of about 7,000,000,000 to 1. While by no means\nthe largest sun in the universe, Sirius is the largest sun in our part\nof space, and some indications have been detected that it may, to a\ncertain extent, control the motion of the solar system. In other words,\nour sun and some of the nearer stars appear to form a group, or family,\nof which Sirius is probably the chief.\n\nSirius is an intensely white star, but its whiteness is shot with a\ntint of blue or green. It has not the purity of light of Spica. Owing\nalso to its great brilliance, it twinkles incessantly, darting, in\nan unsteady atmosphere, rays of all the colors of the rainbow. The\nspectroscope shows that it is a sun at an earlier stage of development\nthan ours. It is also a binary. A very massive companion, singularly\nfaint for its size, revolves round it in a period of about fifty-three\nyears. At present the distance between these stars is more than 6\u2033. The\nsmall star is more than half as massive as Sirius, but ten thousand\ntimes less brilliant--one would say a dying sun linked by gravitation\nwith another in the heyday of its life and splendor.\n\nThe constellation Canis Major, of which Sirius is the leader, is very\nstriking in outline when well above the horizon. Some six degrees west\nof Sirius is seen the second star of the constellation, Beta (\u03b2), or\nMurzim (Arabic _Al Murzim_, the \u201cAnnouncer\u201d), a name which Ideler says\noriginated in the fact that this star rises ahead of Sirius, and thus\nappears to announce its coming. The remainder of the constellation\nshould be viewed an hour or two later than that for which Chart IV is\ndrawn, or a month later in the season, when it is farther from the\nhorizon. It represents the hind-quarters of the imaginary dog. The\nstar Epsilon (\u03b5), or Adhara, perhaps the brightest in the group, is a\ndouble; colors orange and violet; distance 7\u2033.5. The smaller star is\nof only the ninth magnitude. Delta (\u03b4) is called Wezen, the \u201cWeight,\u201d\nbecause \u201cthe star seems to rise with difficulty from the horizon,\u201d an\nexcellent instance of the fanciful titles which the Arabs and others\noften gave to stars. Zeta (\u03b6) is Furud, and Eta (\u03b7) Aludra. The meaning\nof these names is uncertain. Allen says that the Arabs called Epsilon,\nDelta, Eta, and Omicron (\u03bf) \u201cThe Virgins.\u201d But they had other names for\nthem suggested by fancied resemblances as they rose sparkling from the\ndesert.\n\nFrom Canis Major the eye rises to Orion, the most glorious of all\nconstellations:\n\n  \u201cWhoso kens not him in cloudless night\n  Gleaming aloft, shall cast his eyes in vain\n  To find a brighter sign in all the heaven.\u201d\n\nBrown, in his _Primitive Constellations_, undertakes to derive the\nname from the Akkadian Uru-anna, the \u201cLight of Heaven.\u201d Whatever its\norigin, it is certainly very ancient. For some thousands of years\nit has been associated with a traditional giant who looms in the\nbackground of Greek mythology. In the classical atlases of the heavens\nOrion is represented as standing in an attitude of defiance, facing\nwestward, brandishing a huge club above his head, and lifting his\nleft arm, covered with a lion\u2019s hide, to meet the charge of Taurus,\nthe \u201cBull.\u201d And under some such guise all mankind has seen him for\nuntold ages--always a gigantic figure, always heroic in character,\nalways defying or pursuing--the symbol of strength, courage, conquest,\nand victory. The same idea underlies every representation of this\nconstellation; whether it be the mythical \u201cGiant\u201d of the East, or\n\u201cNimrod\u201d or \u201cJoshua\u201d or the \u201cArmed King\u201d or the \u201cWarrior\u201d or the\n\u201cHunter,\u201d it is invariably the figure of a doer of great deeds which is\npresented to the imagination. And it must be said that the aspect of\nthe constellation is in accord with such thoughts. No one can look at\nit without a stirring of the blood. It has something of the effect of a\ngreat battle-piece, and it is not surprising that they once endeavored\nin France to connect it with the name of Napoleon. Although its two\nchief stars are separated some eighteen degrees, and the central \u201cBelt\u201d\nforms a striking figure by itself, yet there is an unmistakable unity\nabout the constellation, and one would hardly think of dividing it into\nseparate groups. Singularly enough, this sense of oneness is borne out\nby the photographic discovery that a vast swirl of nebulous matter\nsurrounds the entire constellation, and by the spectroscopic proof that\nnearly all of its stars belong to one type, which has become known as\nthe \u201cOrion type.\u201d\n\nPerhaps the first feature of Orion that strikes the eye is the\narrangement of the three nearly equal bright stars which form the Belt.\nTheir Greek-letter names are Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta, and by these\nthey are usually designated, but there is a great charm in their Arabic\ntitles, which, in the same order, are _Mintaka_, \u201cBelt\u201d; _Alnilam_\n(from \u201cString of Pearls\u201d); and _Alnitah_, \u201cGirdle.\u201d It will be observed\nthat all of these names have a similar signification, and probably each\nof them was originally employed to designate the whole row.[2]\n\nThe Belt is remarkable in another way--it points very nearly toward\nSirius; it is like a glittering signboard indicating the position of\nthe brightest star in the sky. To hasty observation the row seems to be\nperfectly straight, although there is in reality a slight bend, and the\ndistances separating the three stars appear to be exactly equal. The\neffect is as beautiful as it is surprising.\n\nBelow the Belt hangs a fainter row of stars constituting the \u201cSword.\u201d\nThe central star of this row, Theta (\u03b8), arrests the attention at once\nby a curious appearance of nebulosity, especially if it is examined\nwith an opera-glass. A telescope shows it to be enveloped in one of the\ngrandest nebul\u00e6 in the sky, the celebrated \u201cGreat Nebula of Orion.\u201d\nWith a large glass its appearance is astonishing in the highest degree.\nInstead of being elongated like the great nebula in Andromeda, it is\nabout as broad as long, with no single centre of condensation, but many\ncurdled accumulations, interspersed with partial gaps, and a great\nvariety of curved lines of brighter nebulosity, suggesting the misty\nskeleton of some nondescript monster impact of phosphorescent clouds.\nA large number of stars are scattered over or through it, and some of\nthem seem clearly to be connected with it, as if created out of its\nsubstance. Unlike the Andromeda nebula, this shows only the spectrum of\nglowing gas, so that no such supposition as has been made in the other\ncase--_viz._, that it may be an outside universe--is admissible here.\nIt is rather a chaos, rich with the elements from whose combinations\nspring suns and planets, and where the effects of organizing forces are\njust beginning to become manifest. It resembles a vast everglade filled\nwith tangled vegetation and uncouth growths, but where the fertile\nsoil, once cleared and drained, is capable of producing an enormous\nharvest.\n\nOn either side of the Belt, but far removed from it, shine the two\ngreat stars of Orion, Alpha (\u03b1), or Betelgeuse (from an Arabic phrase\nmeaning the \u201cArmpit of the Central One\u201d), and Beta (\u03b2), or Rigel (from\nan Arabic phrase meaning the \u201cLeg of the Giant\u201d). These stars differ\nremarkably in color, Betelgeuse being orange-hued, and Rigel white.\nAlthough Betelgeuse takes precedence in the Greek-letter ranking, it is\nvariable in brightness, sometimes exceeding Rigel in brilliance, and\nsometimes falling below it. The changes are uncertain in a long and as\nyet unascertained period. There is here an opportunity for an amateur\nto make valuable observations. But such observations must be continued\nover a considerable period of years.\n\nBoth stars are of immense actual magnitude. Their distance is so great\nthat no trustworthy estimate of their parallax has yet been made.\nRigel was put by Newcomb in his \u201cXM\u201d class, to which we have several\ntimes referred. It is without doubt one of the mightiest suns in the\nuniverse. It is also a double, and one of the finest in the sky.\nClose to its flaming rays the telescope reveals a small, intensely\nblue star. The distance is about 9\u2033.5. In its general aspect Rigel\nresembles Vega, but the latter has a more decided blue tint. Scientific\nphotometry gives the precedence in brightness to Vega, which is ranked\nas of magnitude 0.1, while Rigel is 0.3, which means that the first is\none-tenth, and the second three-tenths of a magnitude below the 0 rank.\nIt is very interesting to bring Rigel and Betelgeuse close together\nwith a good sextant and then note the difference in their color.\n\nThe star Gamma (\u03b3), or Bellatrix, the \u201cAmazon\u201d or \u201cFemale Warrior,\u201d\nmarks the left shoulder of the imaginary giant. Astrological\nsuperstition connects this star with the fortunes of women. Kappa (\u03ba),\nor Saiph, \u201cSword\u201d (although it is far from the Sword), is in the right\nknee of the figure. The head is marked by a little triangular group\nof stars, the chief of which is Lambda (\u03bb), a fine double, yellow and\npurplish; distance 4\u2033.5. The \u201clion\u2019s hide\u201d which Orion is represented\nas carrying on his left arm like a shield is shown by a bending row\nof small stars, beginning with Pi (\u03c0) and running upward between\nBellatrix and Aldebaran in Taurus. The reader who is not provided\nwith a telescope is advised, at least, to employ an opera-glass in\nsweeping over the whole space included in Orion. It is a region\nsuperb in its beauty and grandeur. Around the Belt, particularly, the\nsky is filled with sparkling multitudes infinitely varied in size,\ncolor, and grouping. As already said, this part of the firmament\ncontains an enormous spiral nebula, which, although it can only be\nseen in photographs, seems to manifest its presence to the eye by\nthe significant arrangement of small stars in curving lines. A word\nshould be added about the star Zeta, or Alnitah, at the southeastern\nend of the Belt. It is a triple, very remarkable for the indescribable\ncolor of its second largest component. The Russian astronomer Struve\ncould find nothing exactly resembling it in tone in the whole gamut\nof spectral colors, and he invented a special name to describe\nit--_olivacea-sub-rubicunda_, which may be translated \u201cruddy-olive.\u201d It\nis 2\u2033.5 from its larger companion. The third star is very faint, and\ndistant 56\u2033. When the telescope is directed to the star Sigma (\u03c3) there\ncomes into view an astonishing double group of stars, among which such\ncolors as pale blue, \u201cgrape-red,\u201d ruddy, and \u201cgray\u201d have been detected.\nThe effect upon the mind of seeing such combinations of tinted suns\ntranscends all power of description. With the feeling of pleasure that\nthey give goes a sense of staggering wonder.\n\nWest of Orion, beginning near Rigel, is seen the constellation\nEridanus, the River Po. Its stars are interesting for their plainly\nstreaming tendency rather than for their individual peculiarities.\nRising slightly from the neighborhood of Rigel, the stream runs in a\ngraceful curve under Taurus, and continues westward until it meets\nCetus, where it turns downward toward the horizon, and then sweeps back\neastward again, disappearing behind the southern horizon below Orion\nand Lepus. It has no large star visible in northern latitudes, but in\nthe southern hemisphere it contains one of the brightest stars in the\nsky, Achernar, the \u201cEnd of the River.\u201d All of the ancients saw a river\nin this part of the sky, a fact which does not surprise the observer\nwhen he has once noted the arrangement of the stars of Eridanus. Its\nstars are so numerous that the old uranographers seem to have grown\nweary of attaching letters to them; or rather, perhaps, the alphabet\nwas too short to answer the demand, for no less than nine of them,\nbeginning from the one thus lettered in Chart V, are called Tau (\u03c4), as\n\u03c4\u00b9, \u03c4\u00b2, \u03c4\u00b3, etc. (For the origin of the association of Eridanus with\nthe River Po, and with the story of Phaeton, see _Astronomy with the\nNaked Eye_).\n\nThe constellation Lepus, the Hare, below Orion, and marking the place\nwhere Eridanus turns finally to flow into the far south, is noteworthy\nonly for its groupings of stars. It contains one star too faint to be\nseen with the naked eye near the western border of the constellation,\nbelow and to the right of the little group under Rigel, in Chart V,\nwhich is so intensely crimson that Hind likened its appearance to a\n_blood drop_.\n\nWe turn next to Taurus. On account of the beauty of Aldebaran and\nthe Pleiades, this constellation hardly falls behind Orion in\nattractiveness. Aldebaran (Arabic _Al Dabaran_, the \u201cFollower\u201d) is the\nchief star of the constellation and the leader of the group called\nthe Hyades, a name which Lewis derives from the Greek word \u1f55\u03b5\u03b9\u03c5, to\nrain, because their rising was connected with the beginning of the\nrainy season. Popularly the group is known as the \u201cLetter A,\u201d whose\nform it imitates, although it is usually seen nearly upside down.\nThe letter V would perhaps better represent our view of it. It is a\nglorious sight with an opera-glass. Aldebaran is distinctly red, but\nof a peculiar tone, which has frequently been called rose-red. Its\nredness is certainly unlike the orange tone of Betelgeuse. When gazing\nat it in a fanciful mood, I have often likened it imaginatively to\nan apple-blossom in color. Flammarion has translated the Hebrew name\nof this star, _Aleph_, as \u201cGod\u2019s Eye.\u201d Taurus, he says, is the most\nancient of the signs of the zodiac, the first that the Precession\nof the Equinoxes placed at the head of the signs, and he adds that\nobservational astronomy appears to have been founded at the epoch\nwhen the Vernal Equinox lay close to Aldebaran--_i. e._, about three\nthousand years before the commencement of our era.\n\nThe beauty of Aldebaran, the singularity of the figure shaped by its\nattendants, the charming effect produced by the flocks of little\nstars, the Deltas and the Thetas, in the middle of the arms of the\nletter, and the richness of the stellar groundwork of the cluster, all\ncombine to make the Hyades one of the most memorable objects in the\nsky; but no one can describe it, because the starry heavens cannot be\nput into words. Terrestrial analogies, and phrases applied to things\nseen on the earth, utterly fail to convey the impressions made by such\nspectacles. I can only again urge the reader to examine the Hyades\nwith a good opera-glass on a clear night when there is no moonlight to\ninterfere. Some one once said, \u201cIf you would test your appreciation of\npoetry, read Milton\u2019s _Lycidas_\u201d; so I would say, If you would know\nhow you are affected by nature\u2019s masterpieces in the sky, look at the\nHyades.\n\nThe stars Theta (\u03b8) and Sigma (\u03c3) are both naked-eye doubles for sharp\neyes. Try if you can see both of the pairs.\n\nThe Hyades represent the head of the imaginary bull, Aldebaran\nstanding for the eye, while rows of stars running up toward Zeta (\u03b6)\nand Beta (\u03b2) figure the \u201cgolden horns.\u201d The Pleiades, the \u201cAtlantid\nNymphs,\u201d hang on the shoulder. They form a much more compact group\nthan the Hyades, and possess no large star, their chief brilliant,\nAlcyone--Eta(\u03b7)--being only of the third magnitude. But the effect of\ntheir combination is very striking and beautiful. In looking at them\none can never refrain from quoting Tennyson\u2019s famous lines in which\nthey are described as glittering \u201clike a swarm of fireflies tangled\nin a silver braid.\u201d The adjective silvery exactly describes them. If\nyou happen to glance at the sky at a point many degrees away from the\nplace where they shine, your eye will inevitably be drawn to them.\nThey have greater attractive power than a single large star, and the\neffect of their intermingled rays is truly fascinating. With an\nopera-glass they look like the glimmering candles on a Christmas-tree.\nTheir mythological history and the many strange traditions pertaining\nto them I have described elsewhere, and shall not repeat here; but it\nshould be said that there is not in all the sky any object comparable\nwith the Pleiades in influence over the human imagination. The fancy\nof Maedler that Alcyone was the central sun of the universe, and the\ninference, so popular at one time, that it might be the very seat of\nthe Almighty, have vanished in the limbo of baseless traditions; but\nthe mystic charm of the Pleiades has been increased by the photographic\ndiscovery that they are involved in a wonderful mass of tangled nebul\u00e6.\nTheir distance is unknown, but evidently very great, some having put it\nat 250 light-years, corresponding to about 1,450,000,000,000,000 miles!\nIf this is correct, Alcyone may be really one of the most gigantic suns\nin the universe. They appear to be travelling together like a flock of\nbirds.\n\nIt is always an interesting question how many stars in the cluster\ncan be seen with the naked eye. Many persons can detect only six, but\nbetter, or more trained, eyes see seven, or even nine. The telescope\nand photography reveal thousands thickly sprinkled over the space of\nsky that they occupy, or immediately around them. How many of these\nare actually connected with the group is unknown. One of the most\npersistent legends of antiquity is that of the \u201cLost Pleiad.\u201d Says Miss\nClerke, in her _System of the Stars_:\n\n \u201cThat they \u2018were seven who now are six\u2019 is asserted by almost all\n the nations of the earth from Japan to Nigritia, and variants of the\n classical story of the \u2018Lost Pleiad\u2019 are still repeated by sable\n legend-mongers in Victoria, by headhunters in Borneo, by fetish\n worshippers amid the mangrove swamps of the Gold Coast. An impression\n thus widely diffused must either have spread from a common source or\n originated in an obvious fact; and it is at least possible that the\n veiled face of the seventh Atlantid may typify a real loss of light in\n a prehistorically conspicuous star.\u201d\n\nThe name Pleiades is derived from the Greek \u03c0\u03bb\u03b5\u1f35\u03bd, to sail, because\ntheir heliacal rising occurred at the time when navigation opened in\nthe seas of Greece, and their heliacal setting at the time of its close.\n\n  \u201c... Rude winter comes\n  Just when the Pleiades begin to set.\u201d\n\nBut their religious significance seems always to have exceeded their\npractical importance as a sign of the seasons, and from the temples\non the Acropolis of Athens to the sanctuaries of Mexico, Yucatan, and\nPeru they were regarded with reverence and awe. Modern popular fancies\nhave been less reverential, and Alcyone and her attendants have been\ndegraded to the figure of a \u201chen and her chickens.\u201d Our red-skinned\npredecessors on this continent were more poetical, for they saw in the\nPleiades a group of lost children, and in old China they were starry\nsisters busy with their needlework.\n\nHigh overhead, above Orion and Taurus, gleams Capella, the chief star\nof the constellation Auriga, the \u201cCharioteer.\u201d This is also a white\nstar, but no correct eye would confuse it with Rigel or Vega. It has\nnone of the sapphire tint that is mingled in their rays, but is rather\nof the whiteness of cream. It is a very great star, not only in its\napparent brilliance, but in actual luminosity. With a parallax of\n0\u2033.09, Newcomb calculated its luminosity at one hundred and twenty\ntimes that of the sun. It is a spectroscopic binary, the invisible\ncompanion revolving round it in a period of one hundred and four days.\nIn spectroscopic character it closely resembles the sun, being in the\nsame stage of development. Vogel\u2019s observations indicate that it is\nflying away from us at a speed of more than a million and a quarter\nmiles per day; but, in contradiction to this, some have thought that it\nis increasing in brightness. A little elongated triangle of stars below\nand somewhat to the west of Capella serves to render its recognition\ncertain to the beginner in star-gazing. In the evenings of early\nNovember, when one is in the northeast and the other in the northwest,\nit is interesting to compare Capella with Vega, both in brightness and\nin color. In late January evenings Capella is near the zenith for the\nmiddle latitudes of the United States, and at such times is a superb\nobject. The Milky Way pouring through Auriga increases the beauty of\nthe spectacle.\n\nThe second star of Auriga, Beta (\u03b2), or _Menkalina_, the \u201cShoulder,\u201d is\nalso a spectroscopic binary with a period of only four days. It was the\nfirst binary of this class to be discovered. In 1889 Pickering found\nthat its spectral lines were doubled every two days, from which he\ninferred the duplicate character of the star and calculated the period\nof revolution of its components.\n\nFarther east we see Gemini, the \u201cTwins.\u201d It is a very beautiful\nconstellation, independently of the brightness of its leaders, Castor\nand Pollux, or Alpha (\u03b1) and Beta (\u03b2). The feet of the imaginary twins\nare dipped in the Milky Way nearly above the uplifted club of the giant\nOrion, and close to the summer solstice. The successive belts of stars\ncrossing the figures of the Twins present an attractive appearance.\nCastor, although the literal leader of the constellation, is not now\nas bright as its neighbor, Pollux. A change of brightness must have\ntaken place. Castor is a celebrated binary with a period of about one\nthousand years. The distance between the two stars composing it is\nabout 5\u2033.5, and, both being bright, they can be separated with small\ntelescopes.\n\nPollux is very near the standard first magnitude in brightness. It has\na slightly orange tint in contrast with the whiteness of Castor. Like\nOrion, Taurus, and Auriga, Gemini offers splendid fields of stars for\nthe opera-glass. A cluster, M35, not far above the place of the summer\nsolstice, is an object of rare beauty when seen with a low telescopic\npower.\n\nSouth of Gemini shines the bright star Procyon in Canis Minor, the\nLesser Dog. This star, whose name implies the \u201cPreceder, or Announcer,\nof the Dog,\u201d because it rises a little ahead of Sirius, is the only\nbright star of its constellation. It is interesting for having a dusky\ncompanion whose existence was detected by the effects of its attraction\nbefore any telescope had revealed it. With this companion Procyon forms\na binary system with a period of revolution of about forty years. The\nstar Beta (\u03b2) is named Gomeisa, from an Arabic word meaning the \u201cDim\nOne.\u201d Procyon, Sirius, and Betelgeuse form a magnificent triangle,\nthrough which flows the Milky Way.\n\nWe now return to the western part of the sky, where we see, beyond\nEridanus, the vast expanse covered by the constellation Cetus, the\n\u201cWhale.\u201d The head lies on and over the equator above the western bend\nof Eridanus. It is marked by a striking group of stars, of which Alpha\n(\u03b1), or Menkar, the \u201cNose,\u201d is the chief. The star Gamma (\u03b3) is a fine\ndouble; colors yellow and blue; distance 2\u2033.5. Below and toward the\nwest will be found Omicron (\u03bf), better known by its popular title of\nMira, the \u201cWonderful.\u201d In some respects this is the most extraordinary\nof all variable stars. It excited great astonishment when its\nvariations were first recorded in the seventeenth century. Most of the\ntime it is entirely invisible to the naked eye; but once in about ten\nmonths it begins to brighten, and in a few weeks becomes conspicuous,\nsometimes equalling the second magnitude in brightness. Then it\nfades again, and in about three months disappears from naked-eye\nvision, although it is never lost to the telescope, which follows it\ndown to the ninth magnitude, at which it remains, glowing redly, for\nseveral successive months. Its variations are more or less irregular\nboth in period and in brightness. The causes are only conjectural.\nAbout all that we can say is that here is a sun which once every ten\nmonths blazes up to a thousand or fifteen hundred times its ordinary\nbrilliancy. The imagination can work its will with such a star as that.\n\nThe western part of Cetus is marked by a striking group of stars shaped\nsomething like the bowl of an upturned dipper and by a lone, bright\nstar still farther west, Beta (\u03b2), or Deneb Kaitos, the \u201cTail of the\nWhale.\u201d\n\nAbove Cetus runs the long line of stars composing the constellation\nPisces, now the leader of the zodiac, since it contains the Vernal\nEquinox. Alpha (\u03b1), or Al Rischa, the \u201cCord,\u201d because it marks the\nribbon imagined to bind two fishes together by their tails, is directly\nunder the stars marking the head of Aries, to which we have already\nreferred. It is a double of very singular colors--green and blue. The\ndistance is about 3\u2033.6. From Al Rischa the stars of the constellation\nstream northward to the figure of the Northern Fish, whose nose touches\nAndromeda, and westward to the Western Fish, which is situated under\nthe Great Square of Pegasus. The extraordinary tendency of the stars of\nPisces to run in streaming lines has been spoken of in Chapter III.\n\nThe other stars and constellations now visible are already familiar to\nus. But we turn again for a moment to Polaris, which, being practically\nfixed in the sky, can be seen at any season. I have referred to the\nfact that this star for a long series of centuries has been a universal\nguide to all the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere. In that\ncharacter its history is no less romantic than practically important.\nOne of the deepest impressions of my childhood was produced by an\nacquaintance with a remarkable man who at that time seemed to me to be\na most wonderful traveller, since he had seen the Gulf of Mexico, the\nEverglades of Florida, the Dismal Swamp of Virginia, and, according to\nhis story (which no boy would doubt), had battled with alligators and\ntasted the delights of vagabond life on the great cotton plantations\nof the South. I think he was the first who ever pointed out the North\nStar to me, and he fired my imagination by tales of its connection\nwith the escape of negro slaves--escapes in which he professed to have\nplayed a part. Many long winter evenings he sat by my father\u2019s fireside\nand fascinated his hearers with narratives of his adventures. But\nnothing interested me more than what he said of the slaves following\nthe lead of the North Star, through the darkness of tangled swamps,\namong deadly moccasins and lurking alligators, always fixing their eyes\nupon \u201cthe star,\u201d falling on their knees to it as their only friend and\nguide. Trembling at the bay of pursuing bloodhounds, they would lie in\nconcealment during the daylight hours, and as soon as night came on\nwould look for their celestial sentinel, and follow unquestioningly its\nindication of the way to freedom. However apocryphal these stories may\nhave been, they certainly had a basis of truth, and the impressions\nthen produced upon my mind concerning the character of Polaris as the\nsure friend of those who are lost and in trouble have remained undimmed\nin my memory. What a triumph will be that of the man who first visits\nthe north pole by night, and sees that star gleaming directly over his\nhead, while all the constellations solemnly circle about it, unresting\nand unsetting!\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[2] It should be said that throughout this book I am indebted for\nmany of the translations of star names to Richard Hinckley Allen\u2019s\n_Star Names and Their Meanings_, the most complete work of its kind in\nexistence.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nTHE PLANETS\n\n\nThe beginner will often be troubled in his observations by the presence\nin some constellation of a brilliant object which outshines all of the\nstars shown in his charts, and is plainly an interloper among them. He\nmay at once set the stranger down for one of the planets--it may be\nJupiter, Saturn, Mars, or Venus, or possibly, if close to the horizon,\nMercury. Uranus and Neptune will not disturb his equanimity, for the\nlatter is never, and the former seldom, visible to the naked eye.\n\nPractice will quickly enable him to distinguish a planet from the true\nstars, both by its greater apparent size and by the quality of its\nlight. The planets do not twinkle as do the stars. This arises from the\nfact that they present measurable disks which reflect the sunlight,\nbut do not shine with a light of their own. No star shows a real disk,\neven when viewed with a powerful telescope. The stars are mere points,\nand the larger and better the telescope the smaller they appear. This\nis not to say that they do not look brighter in a telescope, for the\nlarger stars are dazzling when viewed with a glass of large aperture;\nbut they are so distant that the mightiest of telescopes cannot reveal\ntheir real surfaces in the form of disks. The apparent disks which they\npresent are due entirely to irradiation, and the higher the power the\nsmaller these spurious disks appear.\n\nAnother way in which the beginner may identify a planet is by observing\nits motion. No planet remains long in the same position with regard\nto neighboring stars. They all travel, at varying rates, from west to\neast through the sky. But this motion is not constant, and at times it\nis reversed. In the cases of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn the reversal is\ndue to the fact that when they are in opposition to the sun the earth,\nbeing nearer the sun than they are, outfoots them in eastward motion,\nso that they appear for a time to move backward on their orbits. It\nis like a fast train passing a slow one on a parallel track; to an\nobserver on the fast train the slow one seems to be either standing\nstill or moving backward. But Mercury and Venus, being nearer the sun\nthan the earth is, have at times a backward motion which is real.\nLet us consider them only when they appear as \u201cevening stars.\u201d From\n\u201csuperior conjunction\u201d (_i. e._, the point occupied by the planet when\nit is on the opposite side of the sun from the earth) to \u201cgreatest\neastern elongation\u201d (greatest apparent distance from the sun in the\nevening sky) both Mercury and Venus move eastward among the stars; from\n\u201cgreatest eastern elongation\u201d to \u201cinferior conjunction\u201d (_i. e._, the\npoint occupied by the planet when it is between the earth and the sun)\nthey move westward among the stars, or, in other words, approach the\nsun.\n\nThe motions of Mercury and Venus are comparatively swift, particularly\nthat of the former. Few persons have ever seen Mercury, because of\nits nearness to the sun. When well seen it is brighter than any\nfirst-magnitude star. As an \u201cevening star\u201d it appears in the west\nimmediately after sunset about once every four months (more precisely\nonce every 116 days). It remains within view about twenty days, but\ncan be easily distinguished only for a week or so when it is nearest\neastern elongation. Every almanac gives the dates of its appearances.\n\nVenus, being farther from the sun, travels less rapidly. It reappears\nin the evening sky once in every 584 days, gradually withdrawing\nfrom the sun, and growing brighter until it reaches greatest eastern\nelongation, which may be as much as forty-seven degrees from the\nsun, after which it approaches the sun, still becoming brighter for\nseveral weeks, until at last it is lost in the glare of the sunlight.\nDuring its excursions in the evening sky (and the same is true of its\nmorning apparitions), Venus becomes the most brilliant object in the\nstarry heavens, so brilliant, in fact, that many persons can hardly be\npersuaded that it is not an artificial light, or some extraordinary\nphenomenon in space. In the telescope it shows (as does Mercury,\nalso) phases like those of the moon, and when it is seen in the form\nof a narrow crescent it becomes one of the most charming objects\nimaginable. For more details about Mercury, Venus, and the other\nplanets, the reader may consult _Astronomy with the Naked Eye_.\n\nMars, Jupiter, and Saturn are more likely to cause confusion to the\nbeginner by getting \u201cmixed up\u201d with the stars of the constellations\nhe is studying, because they travel all round the sky, and may appear\nin turn in each of the zodiacal constellations at any hour of the\nnight. The zodiacal constellations are twelve in number--Aries, Taurus,\nGemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus,\nAquarius, and Pisces--and they lie in succession along the course of\nthe ecliptic.\n\nMars is not remarkably brilliant except when it is in opposition to the\nsun, which happens once every 780 days; but some of the oppositions\nare much more important than the average, because they occur when Mars\nis relatively near the earth. This planet is always distinguishable by\nits ruddy color. In case it is mistaken for a star, the error can be\ncorrected by watching it for a few successive nights, when its motion\nwill become clearly apparent. On the average it moves eastward about\nhalf a degree per day.\n\nJupiter, always very conspicuous when in view, outshines even Sirius,\nthough lacking the scintillation characteristic of that great star.\nIts light has a slightly yellowish tint, and is remarkably steady.\nSince it requires nearly twelve years to make a revolution round the\nsky, Jupiter\u2019s motion is not immediately apparent. It remains for a\nlong time in any constellation in which it may be found, travelling\neastward, on the average, about 5\u2032 of arc, or one-sixth of the apparent\ndiameter of the moon, per day. In a month it moves about two and a half\ndegrees.\n\nSaturn is yet more deliberate in its movements. Requiring almost thirty\nyears for a revolution, it may remain more than two years in the same\nconstellation, and its real motion will only become evident upon\ncareful observation continued for several weeks.\n\nThe best way to recognize the planets with certainty is to look up\ntheir positions with the aid of the _American Ephemeris and Nautical\nAlmanac_, published annually by the Government at Washington. There\nthe right ascensions and declinations of all the planets are given for\nany time of the year. Having these, you may find on the large-scale\ncharts the approximate place of the planet sought, and, if you choose,\nindicate its position with a pencil-mark.\n\nThe study of the planets, even without telescopic aid, has a charm\nhardly less potent than that of the stars. Mercury is fascinating\nbecause of the difficulty of seeing him in the light of twilight or\ndawn. The ancients were greatly puzzled by his dodges, and some of them\nthought that he was a double personality, and gave him two names, one\nfor his morning and the other for his evening apparitions. With the\nEgyptians he was respectively Set and Horus, and with the Greeks Apollo\nand Hermes. The same was true of Venus, who was Phosphorus in the\nmorning and Hesperus in the evening.\n\nVenus, after she passes the half-moon phase, becomes so bright that she\nsimply overpowers all stars in her neighborhood. Her splendor seems\nalmost supernatural, and she has frequently been seen at high noon, a\npoint of intense light burning in the blue sky.\n\nJupiter\u2019s entrance into any constellation immediately alters its\nfamiliar aspect, and he becomes its unquestioned leader, and remains\nsuch until his slow eastward motion carries him on to reign in another\nquarter of the firmament. He is never more impressive than when, in\nconsequence of the annual revolution of the heavens, he rises late some\nnight and takes the lingering star-gazer by surprise. Then all the\nstellar hosts that for hours have held the watcher spellbound cease\ntheir incantation in the presence of this great counter-charmer, to\nwhose power they, too, seem to bow. Although Venus at her brightest\noutshines Jupiter, she lacks a certain majesty which he alone\npossesses. His light is calm, steady, insistent, commanding. He does\nnot look like a star, but rather a _superstar_. If he beams at all, it\nis not the hurried scintillation of the twinkling multitude around him.\nRising through a moisture-laden and wind-swept sky, where the stars are\nlike pulsating atoms, shaken apart and scattered in tinsel showers of\nrainbow sparks, he glows unflickering, recognizing the aerial tumult\nonly by a deepening of color which makes him the more imposing. As\nhe mounts the heights of the sky he gleams ever brighter and ever\nsteadier, and, casting off the tarnish of the horizon, his supereminent\nlight glows with a splendor that is amazing. If you have an eye that\ncan detect one or two of Jupiter\u2019s moons hiding close in his rays, you\nmay boast of your powers of vision, for that feat has been accomplished\nby very few human beings. Humboldt heard of a German \u201cmaster tailor\u201d\nwho could do it. There are a few other cases on record. Most persons\ncannot see them even with the aid of a strong opera-glass. There is a\nsuperstition that they can be seen with a looking-glass, but it is only\nghostly reflections that are thus perceived--perhaps as real as any\nother ghosts.\n\nSaturn, although as bright as a first-magnitude star, is somewhat\ndisappointing as a naked-eye object, owing to the relative dulness\nof its light. Like Jupiter, it shines with great steadiness, and a\npractised eye could not mistake it for a fixed star. But its appearance\nwithout a telescope gives no hint of the unearthly beauty with which\nit astonishes the beholder when its rings are rendered visible. Not to\nhave seen those rings at least once in a lifetime, as they appear in a\npowerful telescope, is to have missed one of the supreme spectacles of\ncreation.\n\nMars is never very brilliant except during favorable oppositions, when,\napproaching within less than 40,000,000 miles of the earth, it hangs in\nthe midnight sky, gleaming red like a portent of disaster. The aspect\nof Mars at such times is truly alarming. It is surprising to see what a\nquantity of stained sunlight a world only about four thousand miles in\ndiameter is able to reflect across so vast a gap of space. The reason\nwhy the ancients connected Mars with the god of war is plain enough\nwhen he puts on his color.\n\nClose conjunctions of the bright planets are exceedingly interesting\nphenomena. Mars and Jupiter seen together when the former is near one\nof its favorable oppositions make a scene of strange beauty. After long\nintervals of time several of these great planets sometimes assemble\nin the same quarter, and such conjunctions are always memorable\noccurrences. The stars are forgotten in the presence of this new\nconstellation, and yet the tiniest of the sparks that seems to hide its\nlight in the depths beyond would master these great planets and make\ngravitational slaves of them, as the sun does.\n\nThe planets are so conspicuous to our eyes, because of their relative\nnearness, that it is not easy for the beginner in such studies to\nrealize how insignificant they actually are. But suppose that one\ncould fly like a spirit away from the earth and the neighborhood of\nthe sun, out into the deeps of interstellar space. As he moved away\nthe planets would seem to be swallowed up, one after the other, in the\nsolar rays. First Mercury would disappear, as if it had fallen into the\nsun. It would be just like two neighboring lights which appear to draw\ntogether and blend into one as the observer travels away from them, the\ngreater swallowing the less. Then brilliant Venus would go, plunging\ninto the great solar furnace, to be seen no more. Next the earth would\nfollow in the perspective holocaust. Mars would seem to draw nearer\nuntil he, too, disappeared; Jupiter would follow; then Saturn; then\nUranus, and finally Neptune. When the last planet was gone the sun\nwould be seen shining alone, unattended, as if he had never had any\nplanets. Thus it may be with the stars; most of them may have systems\nof planets circling round them, but at our distance these planets are\nconcealed in the rays of their primaries.\n\nOne would not need to go so far away as the stars in order to see\nthe sun apparently swallow his planets, as Saturn was fabled to have\nswallowed his children. But as one approached the stellar region, the\nsun itself would become a mere star. Fainter and fainter it appears,\nglimmering and twinkling, deprived of its dominance, stripped of its\nsplendor, a pitiful spark now instead of an all-ruling and blinding\nmaker of daylight, until at last the far voyager from the earth,\ngazing with his soul in his eyes, straining his vision to the utmost\nto hold that glinting point clear of its fellows, _for it is his sun_,\nsuddenly, as a momentary film blurs his sight, loses it, and henceforth\nseek as he may among the countless hosts that spangle the firmament,\nhe will never again find the day-star under whose cheery beams he\nwas born! Hidden in the Milky Way, one would have no more chance of\nrecognizing the sun than of finding a particular grain of sand on the\nsea-shore. Man physical is as insignificant as the rock he dwells on\nand as the eye-searing orb that lights him at his daily work; but man\nspiritual is as great as the universe--and greater!\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nURANOGRAPHY OR HEAVENLY DESCRIPTION OF THE CHURCHMEN\n\n\nMany readers may be interested in seeing a list of the names given to\nthe constellations when, as mentioned in the Introduction, the starry\nsky was \u201cChristianized.\u201d In the seventeenth century Julius Schillerius\nput forth his _C\u0153lum Stellatum Christianum_, and Jacobus Bartschius a\ncelestial globe, in which all of the well-known constellations received\nnew and strictly orthodox names. Unfortunately the sponsors for these\nnames did not always agree in their choice, and a certain Harsdorfius\n(who may have been the poet Philip Harsdoerfer, born at Nuremberg in\n1607) added to the confusion by further varying the selection. Wilhelm\nSchickard also introduced variations. In the following list the first\nof the \u201cChristian\u201d names given is that chosen by Schillerius, while\ntheir variants are due to either Harsdorfius, Schickard, or Bartschius:\n\n  ARIES--St. Peter--Abraham\u2019s Ram.\n  TAURUS--St. Andrew--The Burnt Sacrifice.\n  GEMINI--St. James the Elder--Jacob and Esau.\n  CANCER--St. John the Evangelist.\n  LEO--St. Thomas--The Lion of Judah. (Observe that the variants are\n   generally more imaginative.)\n  VIRGO--St. James the Younger--The Virgin Mary.\n  LIBRA--St. Philip--Belshazzar\u2019s Balances.\n  SCORPIO--St. Bartholomew.\n  SAGITTARIUS--St. Matthew--Ishmael.\n  CAPRICORNUS--St. Simon.\n  AQUARIUS--St. Jude--Naaman.\n  PISCES--St. Mathias--The Gospel Fishes.\n  URSA MINOR--St. Michael--One of Elisha\u2019s Bears--The Wagon of Joseph.\n  URSA MAJOR--St. Peter\u2019s Fishing-boat--Elisha\u2019s other Bear--The Chariot\n   of Elias.\n  DRACO--The Innocents--The Dragon Infernal. (Quite a difference of\n   opinion.)\n  BO\u00d6TES--St. Sylvester--Nimrod.\n  COMA BERENICES--The Scourge of Christ--Absalom\u2019s Hair--Samson\u2019s Hair.\n  CORONA BOREALIS--The Crown of Thorns--Queen Esther\u2019s Crown.\n  HERCULES--The Three Wise Men of the East--Samson.\n  LYRA--The Saviour\u2019s Manger--David\u2019s Harp.\n  CYGNUS--The Cross of Calvary.\n  CASSIOPEIA--St. Mary Magdalen--Bathsheba.\n  CEPHEUS--St. Stephen--Solomon. (Solomon seems a better choice.)\n  PERSEUS WITH MEDUSA\u2019S HEAD--David with the Head of Goliath--St. Paul.\n  ANDROMEDA--The Holy Sepulchre--Abigail. (The last reverses Andromeda\u2019s\n   romance with a vengeance.)\n  AURIGA--Jacob--St. Jerome.\n  OPHIUCHUS ET SERPENS--St. Benedict--St. Paul and the Viper. (The\n   latter very pat.)\n  SAGITTA--The Lance of Calvary--Jonathan\u2019s Arrow.\n  AQUILA--St. Katharine--The Standard of Rome.\n  DELPHINUS--The Canaanitish Woman\u2019s Pitcher--Leviathan.\n  EQUULEUS--The Mystic Rose.\n  PEGASUS--St. Gabriel--Jeremiah\u2019s King of Babylon.\n  TRIANGULUM--St. Peter\u2019s Mitre--Emblem of the Trinity.\n  CETUS--Sts. Joachim and Anna--Jonah\u2019s Whale.\n  ERIDANUS--The Red Sea with Moses Crossing It--The Brook of Cedron.\n  ORION--St. Joseph--Joshua. (The last a good choice.)\n  LEPUS--Gideon\u2019s Fleece.\n  CANIS MAJOR--Tobias\u2019s Dog--St. David.\n  CANIS MINOR--The Paschal Lamb.\n  ARGO NAVIS--Noah\u2019s Ark. (Inevitable!)\n  HYDRA--The River Jordan.\n  CRATER (together with Corvus)--The Ark of the Covenant.\n  CORVUS (according to Schickard)--Elias\u2019s Crow.\n  CENTAURUS--Abraham and Isaac.\n  LUPUS--Jacob.\n  ARA--The Altar of Incense.\n  CORONA AUSTRALIS--David\u2019s Crown--Solomon\u2019s Crown.\n  PISCIS AUSTRINUS--The Widow\u2019s Meal Barrel--St. Peter\u2019s Fish with Money\n   in Its Mouth.\n  GRUS    }--Aaron.\n  PH\u0152NIX  }\n  INDUS }--Job.\n  PAVO  }\n  APUS          }\n  CHAMELEON     }--Eve.\n  PISCIS VOLANS }\n  TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE--The Cross of Christ. (At that time the Southern\n   Cross seems not to have been known.)\n  DORADO }\n  TOUCAN }--St. Raphael.\n  HYDRUS }\n\nThe southern constellations, Grus, Ph\u0153nix, Indus, Pavo, Apus,\nChameleon, Piscis Volans, Triangulum Australe, Dorado, Toucan, and\nHydrus, were all named by Bayer at the beginning of the seventeenth\ncentury, so that the revisers were not upsetting any antique legends in\ngiving them more sacred names.\n\n\nLETTERS OF THE GREEK ALPHABET EMPLOYED IN URANOGRAPHY\n\n  \u03b1--Alpha\n  \u03b2--Beta\n  \u03b3--Gamma\n  \u03b4--Delta\n  \u03b5--Epsilon\n  \u03b6--Zeta\n  \u03b7--Eta\n  \u03b8--Theta\n  \u03b9--Iota\n  \u03ba--Kappa\n  \u03bb--Lambda\n  \u03bc--Mu\n  \u03bd--Nu\n  \u03be--Xi\n  \u03bf--Omicron\n  \u03c0--Pi\n  \u03c1--Rho\n  \u03c3--Sigma\n  \u03c4--Tau\n  \u03c5--Upsilon\n  \u03c6--Phi\n  \u03c7--Chi\n  \u03c8--Psi\n  \u03c9--Omega\n\n[Illustration: CHART V--THE FIRST SIX HOURS FROM THE VERNAL EQUINOX]\n\n[Illustration: CHART VI--FROM VI H. TO XII H. FROM THE VERNAL EQUINOX]\n\n[Illustration: CHART VII--FROM XII H. TO XVIII H. FROM THE VERNAL\nEQUINOX]\n\n[Illustration: CHART VIII--FROM XVIII H. TO XXIV H. FROM THE VERNAL\nEQUINOX]\n\n[Illustration: CHART IX--POLAR CONSTELLATIONS FROM VI H. TO XVIII H.]\n\n[Illustration: CHART X--POLAR CONSTELLATIONS FROM XVIII H. TO VI H.]\n\n\n\n\nPRONUNCIATION OF STAR AND CONSTELLATION NAMES\n\n  Achernar (\u00e4-k\u00e9\u0303r-n\u00e4r)\n  Albireo (\u0103l-b\u00ed\u0304-r\u0113-\u014d)\n  Alcyone (\u0103l-s\u00ed\u0304-\u014f-n\u0113)\n  Aldebaran (\u0103l-d\u00e9\u0306b-\u0227r-\u0103n)\n  Algenib (\u0103l-\u1e21\u00e9n-ib)\n  Algenubi (\u1eafl-\u1e21en-\u00fa\u0304-b\u01d0)\n  Algieba (\u0103l-j\u00e9\u0304-b\u0227)\n  Algol (\u0103l-gol)\n  Algorab (\u1eafl-go-r\u00e1\u0308b)\n  Alioth (\u1eafl-\u012d-\u014fth)\n  Alkalurops (\u1eafl-k\u0101-l\u00fa\u0304-r\u014fps)\n  Alnilam (\u1eafl-n\u012d-l\u00e1\u0308m)\n  Alnitah (\u0103l-n\u012d-t\u00e1\u0308h)\n  Almaack (\u1eafl-m\u0101-\u1eafck)\n  Alphacca (\u0103l-f\u1eafk-k\u0227)\n  Alphard (\u0103l-f\u00e1\u0308rd)\n  Alpheratz (\u0103l-f\u00e9\u0304-r\u0103tz)\n  Alrischa (\u0103l-r\u012d-sh\u0301\u0227)\n  Alrucaba (\u0103l-r\u0169-c\u00e1\u0308-b\u0227)\n  Altair (\u0103l-t\u00e1\u0304r or \u0103l-\u1e97\u00e1\u0308-\u01d0r)\n  Aludra (\u00e1\u0308-l\u0169-dr\u0308\u00e1\u0308)\n  Andromeda (\u0103n-d\u0155\u014fm-\u0113-d\u0227)\n  Antares (\u01cen-t\u00e1\u0304-r\u0113z)\n  Antinous (\u0103n-t\u00ed\u0306n-\u014f\u0304-\u016ds)\n  Aquarius (\u0227-k\u1e83\u0101-r\u012d-\u016ds)\n  Aquila (\u1eafk-w\u012d-l\u0227)\n  Arcturus (\u00e4rk-t\u0301\u0169-r\u016ds)\n  Argo Navis (\u0101r-g\u014d \u0144\u0101-v\u01d0s)\n  Aries (\u00e1\u0304-r\u0113z or \u00e1\u0304-r\u01d0-\u0113s)\n  Auriga (\u00e4w-r\u00ed\u0304-\u1e21\u0227)\n\n  Baten Kaitos (b\u00e1\u0308-t\u0115n k\u00ed\u0304t\u014fs)\n  Bellatrix (b\u0115l-l\u00e1\u0304-tr\u012dx)\n  Benetnasch (b\u0113-n\u00e9\u0306t-n\u0103sch)\n  Betelgeuse (b\u00e9\u0306t-\u0115l-\u1e21ooz or b\u00e9\u0306t-\u0115l-g\u0113z)\n  Bo\u00f6tes (bb\u0304-\u00f3\u0304-t\u0113z)\n\n  Camelopardalis (c\u0103m-\u0115\u013a-\u014d-p\u0103\u00b4r-d\u0101-l\u012ds)\n  Canes Venatici (c\u00e1\u0304-n\u0113z v\u0115n-\u00e1\u0306t-\u012d\u0306-s\u012b)\n  Canis Major (c\u00e1\u0304-n\u012ds m\u00e1\u0304jor)\n  Canis Minor (c\u00e1\u0304-n\u012ds m\u00ed\u1e45or)\n  Canopus (c\u0227n-\u00f3\u0304-pus)\n  Capella (c\u0101-p\u00e9\u0306l-l\u0227)\n  Caph (k\u0101ff)\n  Capricornus (c\u00e1\u0306p-r\u012b-k\u00f3r-nus)\n  Cassiopeia (c\u00e1\u0306s-s\u012d-\u014d-p\u00e9\u0304-y\u0227)\n  Centaurus (c\u0115n-t\u00e1w-rus)\n  Cepheus (\u015b\u0113-f\u0113-us or \u015b\u0113-f\u0169s)\n  Cetus (\u015b\u0113-t\u016ds)\n  Coma Berenices (c\u00f3\u0304m\u0101 b\u0113r-\u0115-n\u00ed\u0304-s\u0113s)\n  Corona Borealis (c\u00f3\u0304-r\u00f3\u0304-n\u0227 b\u014d-r\u0113-\u00e1\u0304-lis)\n  Corvus (c\u00f4\u0155-vus)\n  Crater (cr\u00e1\u0304-ter)\n  Cygnus (s\u012d\u01f5\u0304-nus)\n\n  Delphinus (del-f\u00ed\u0304-nus)\n  Deneb (d\u0115\u0144-eb)\n  Denebola (d\u0113-n\u00e9\u0306b-\u014d-l\u0227)\n  Draco (d\u0155\u0101-co)\n  Dubhe (d\u0169b\u0301-h\u0115)\n\n  Eltanin (\u0115\u013a-t\u0227-n\u012dn)\n  Equuleus (\u0113-kw\u00f3o-l\u0113-\u016ds)\n  Eridanus (\u0113-r\u012dd\u0301-\u0101-nus)\n\n  Fomalhaut (f\u00f3\u0304-m\u0103l-h\u00f4t)\n  Fornax (f\u00f4\u0155-naks)\n\n  Gemini (j\u00e9\u0306m-\u012d-n\u012b)\n  Giedi (j\u00e9\u0304-d\u012d)\n  Gienah (j\u00e9\u0304-nah)\n  Gomelza (g\u014d-m\u00e9\u0306l-z\u0227)\n\n  Hamal (h\u00e1\u0306m-al)\n  Hercules (h\u00e9\u0311r-k\u0169-l\u0113z)\n  Hyades (h\u00ed\u0304-\u0227-d\u0113z)\n  Hydra (h\u00ed\u0304-dr\u0227)\n\n  Lacerta (l\u0227-s\u0117\u0304r-ta)\n  Leo (l\u00e9\u0304-\u014d)\n  Lepus (l\u00e9\u0304-pus)\n  Libra (l\u00ed\u0304-br\u0227)\n  Lyra (l\u00ed\u0304-r\u0227)\n\n  Maia (m\u00e1\u0304-y\u0227)\n  Marfak (m\u00e1\u0307r-f\u0103k)\n  Markab (m\u00e1\u0307r-k\u0103b)\n  Megrez (m\u00e9\u0304-gr\u0115z)\n  Menkab (m\u0115n-k\u00e1\u0304b)\n  Menkalina (m\u00e9\u0306n-k\u0227-l\u012d-n\u00e1\u0304h)\n  Merope (m\u00e9\u0303r-\u014d-p\u0113)\n  Mesarthim (m\u0113-s\u0101r-th\u0301\u012dm)\n  Mintaka (m\u012d\u0144-t\u0227-k\u0227)\n  Mira (m\u00ed\u0304-r\u0227)\n  Mirach (m\u00ed\u0304-rak)\n  Mizar (m\u00ed\u0304-z\u0227r)\n  Monoceros (m\u014d-n\u014f\u015b-\u0115r-\u014fs)\n  Murzim (m\u00fa\u0306r-z\u012dm)\n\n  Ophiuchus (\u00f3\u0304-f\u012d-\u00fa\u0304-kus)\n  Orion (\u014d-r\u00ed\u0304-\u014fn)\n\n  Pegasus (p\u0115\u01f5-\u0101-s\u016ds)\n  Perseus (p\u00e9\u0303r-s\u0113-\u016ds or p\u00e9\u0303r-s\u0169s)\n  Pisces (p\u012d\u015b-s\u0113z)\n  Piscis Austrinus (pi\u0307\u0306s-s\u012ds aus-t\u0155\u012b-nus)\n  Pleiades (p\u013a\u0113-\u01ced-\u0113z or pl\u00ed\u0304-\u01ced-\u0113z)\n  Polaris (p\u014d-l\u0227\u0155-\u012ds)\n  Pollux (p\u00f3\u030cl-lux)\n  Porrima (p\u00f3\u0306r-r\u012d-m\u0227)\n  Pr\u00e6sepe (pr\u0113-s\u00e9\u0304-p\u0113)\n  Procyon (pr\u014d-s\u00ed\u0304-\u01d2n)\n\n  Ras Algethi (r\u0227s \u01ce\u013a-g\u0115-th\u0301\u01d0)\n  Rastaban (r\u0227s-t\u00e0-b\u0101\u0144)\n  Regulus (r\u00e9\u0306\u1e21-\u0169-l\u01d4s)\n  Rigel (r\u00ed\u0304-\u1e21\u0115l or r\u00ed\u0304-j\u0115l)\n\n  Sagitta (s\u0227-j\u00ed\u030ct-t\u0227)\n  Sagittarius (s\u0227-j\u01d0t-t\u00e1\u0304-r\u01d0-\u01d4s)\n  Scheat (she-\u01cet\u0301)\n  Schedar (sh\u011bd\u0301-d\u00e4r)\n  Scorpio (sk\u00f3r-p\u01d0-\u014d)\n  Scutum Sobieskii (s\u1e31\u0169-t\u01d4m s\u014d-b\u01d0-\u011b\u015b-k\u01d0-\u012b)\n  Serpens (s\u00e9\u0303r-pens)\n  Sirius (s\u01d0\u0155-\u01d0-\u01d4s)\n  Spica (sp\u00ed\u0304-k\u0227)\n\n  Taurus (t\u0101\u00fa-r\u01d4s)\n  Thuban (thu-b\u00e4\u0144)\n  Triangulum (tr\u012b-\u01ce\u0144-\u0121\u0169-l\u01d4m)\n\n  Ursa Major (\u00fb\u0155-s\u0227 m\u00e1\u0304-jor)\n  Ursa Minor (\u00fb\u0155-s\u0227 m\u00ed\u0304-nor)\n\n  Vega (v\u00e9\u0304-\u1e21\u0227)\n  Vindemiatrix (v\u01d0n-d\u00e9\u0304-m\u01d0-\u00e1\u0304-tr\u01d0x)\n  Virgo (v\u0117\u0155-go)\n  Vulpecula (v\u01d4l-p\u011b\u1e31-\u0169-l\u0227)\n\n  Wesen (w\u00e1\u0304-z\u0115n)\n\n  Zavijava (z\u0227-v\u01d0-j\u00e1\u0308-v\u0101h)\n  Zubenelgenubi (z\u0169-b\u00e9\u0306n-\u011bl-jen-\u00fa\u0304-b\u01d0)\n  Zubeneschemali (z\u0169-b\u00e9\u030cn-\u011bs-she-\u1e3f\u0227-l\u01d0)\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\n  \u201cA,\u201d the letter, 108.\n\n  Achernar, 107.\n\n  Adhara, 100.\n\n  Afternoon of the year, 72.\n\n  Albireo, 64.\n\n  Al Chiba, 33.\n\n  Alcor, 41.\n\n  Alcyone, 110.\n\n  Aldebaran, 107 _et seq._\n\n  Alderamin, 91.\n\n  Aleph, 108.\n\n  Alfirk, 92.\n\n  Algedi, 78.\n\n  Algenib, 86.\n\n  Algieba, 36.\n\n  Algol, 86.\n\n  Algorab, 33.\n\n  Al Hiba, 33.\n\n  Alioth, 41.\n\n  Allen, R. H., quoted, 41, 57, 64, 70, 78, 101, 102.\n\n  Almaack, 82.\n\n  Alnilam, 102.\n\n  Alnitah, 102.\n\n  Alpha Andromed\u00e6, 12, 81.\n    Aquarii, 77.\n    Aquil\u00e6, 65.\n    Arietis, 83.\n    Aurig\u00e6, 111.\n    Bo\u00f6tes, 67.\n    Canis Majoris, 94.\n    Canis Minoris, 113.\n    Capricorni, 78.\n    Cassiopei\u00e6, 88.\n    Centauri, 65.\n    Cephei, 91.\n    Ceti, 114.\n    Corvi, 33.\n    Cygni, 63.\n    Draconis, 45, 48.\n    Geminorum, 113.\n    Herculis, 59.\n    Hydr\u00e6, 35.\n    Leonis, 35.\n    Libr\u00e6, 70.\n    Lyr\u00e6, 48, 61.\n    Orionis, 104.\n    Pegasi, 81.\n    Piscis Austrinus, 75.\n    Piscium, 115.\n    Scorpii, 54.\n    Serpentis, 57.\n    Tauri, 107.\n    Urs\u00e6 Majoris, 40.\n    Urs\u00e6 Minoris, 46.\n    Virginis, 29.\n\n  Alphard, 34.\n\n  Alpheratz, 12, 81.\n\n  Al Rischa, 115.\n\n  Altair, 65.\n\n  Aludra, 100.\n\n  American Ephemeris, 122.\n\n  Andromed\u00e6, 12, 81.\n\n  Antares, 54.\n\n  Antinous, 66.\n\n  Aonian Dragon, 34.\n\n  Aquarius, 77 _et seq._\n\n  Aquila, 65.\n\n  Aratus, quoted, 30.\n\n  Arctophilax, 68.\n\n  Arcturus, 43, 67 _et seq._\n\n  Argonautic Expedition, 34.\n\n  Aries, 83, 84.\n\n  Auriga, 111.\n\n  Autumnal Equinox, 71.\n\n\n  Barnard, E. E., quoted, 59.\n\n  Beehive, the, 38.\n\n  Bell, Dr. Louis, quoted, 90.\n\n  Bellatrix, 105.\n\n  Belt of Orion, 102, 105.\n\n  Beta Andromed\u00e6, 81.\n    Aquarii, 78.\n    Arietis, 84.\n    Aurig\u00e6, 112.\n    Canis Majoris, 100.\n    Canis Minoris, 113.\n    Capricorni, 78.\n    Cassiopei\u00e6, 88.\n    Cephei, 92.\n    Ceti, 115.\n    Corvi, 33.\n    Cygni, 64.\n    Geminorum, 113.\n    Leonis, 37.\n    Libr\u00e6, 70.\n    Lyr\u00e6, 63.\n    Orionis, 104.\n    Pegasi, 81.\n    Scorpii, 55.\n    Tauri, 109.\n    Urs\u00e6 Majoris, 40.\n    Urs\u00e6 Minoris, 46.\n    Virginis, 32.\n\n  Betelgeuse, 104.\n\n  Bo\u00f6tes, 43, 69.\n\n\n  Cancer, 38.\n\n  Canes Venatici, 42, 69.\n\n  Canis Major, 100.\n\n  Canis Minor, 113.\n\n  Capella, 43, 111.\n\n  Caph, 88.\n\n  Capricornus, 78.\n\n  Carman, Bliss, quoted, 22.\n\n  Cassiopeia, 47, 88.\n\n  Castor, 113.\n\n  Cepheus, 91.\n\n  Cetus, 114.\n\n  Chair, Cassiopeia\u2019s, 87.\n\n  Cheops, pyramid of, 45.\n\n  Christianization of sky, 12.\n\n  Clerke, Agnes M., quoted, 111.\n\n  Coma Berenices, 38.\n\n  Constellations, their uses, 12, 13.\n\n  Cor Caroli, 42.\n\n  Cor Hydr\u00e6, 34.\n\n  Corona Borealis, 66.\n\n  Corvus, 32.\n\n  Crater, 33.\n\n  Crete, discoveries in, 62.\n\n  Cupid\u2019s Arrow, 80.\n\n  Cygnus, 63.\n\n  61 Cygni, 64.\n\n\n  Dabih, 78.\n\n  Dana, R. H., quoted, 77.\n\n  Delphinus, 79.\n\n  Delta Andromed\u00e6, 81.\n    Canis Majoris, 100.\n    Cassiopei\u00e6, 47, 88.\n    Corvi, 33.\n    Orionis, 102.\n    Sagittarii, 56.\n    Serpentis, 57.\n    Urs\u00e6 Majoris, 40.\n    Virginis, 32.\n\n  Demon star, 86.\n\n  Deneb, 63.\n\n  Deneb Kaitos, 115.\n\n  Denebola, 37 _et seq._\n\n  Dipper in Sagittarius, 56.\n\n  Dippers, the, 29.\n\n  Discipline in the sky, 9.\n\n  Donati\u2019s comet, 69.\n\n  Draco, 44 _et seq._\n\n  Dream of the universe, 91.\n\n  Dubhe, 41.\n\n  Durchmusterungs, 12.\n\n\n  Eltanin, 46.\n\n  Emerson, R. W., quoted, 22, 53, 61.\n\n  Epsilon Canis Majoris, 100.\n    Bo\u00f6tes, 69.\n    Lyr\u00e6, 63.\n    Orionis, 102.\n    Pegasi, 81.\n    Serpentis, 57.\n    Urs\u00e6 Majoris, 40.\n    Virginis, 32.\n\n  Equator, 13.\n\n  Equinoctial colure, 88.\n\n  Equinoctial storms, 71.\n\n  Equinoxes, 13.\n\n  Eridanus, 106.\n\n  Esculapius, 57.\n\n  Eta Cassiopei\u00e6, 89.\n    Canis Majoris, 100.\n\n  Eta Tauri, 107.\n\n  Expectancy of astronomers, 27.\n\n\n  Feet of Ursa Major, 42.\n\n  Field of the nebul\u00e6, 32.\n\n  Flammarion, quoted, 108.\n\n  Fomalhaut, 75.\n\n  Furud, 100.\n\n\n  Galileo, 38.\n\n  Gamma Andromed\u00e6, 82.\n    Aquarii, 78.\n    Arietis, 84.\n    Capricorni, 79.\n    Ceti, 114.\n    Corvi, 33.\n    Draconis, 46.\n    Leonis, 36.\n    Lyr\u00e6, 63.\n    Orionis, 105.\n    Pegasi, 80.\n    Virginis, 32.\n\n  Gardens of the sky, 72.\n\n  Garnet star, 92.\n\n  Gateway of souls, 39.\n\n  Gemini, 113.\n\n  Gemma, 66.\n\n  Gienah, 33.\n\n  \u201cGod\u2019s Eye,\u201d 108.\n\n  Gomeisa, 114.\n\n  Great Bear, 40.\n\n  Great Dipper, 40.\n\n  Great Square of Pegasus, 80.\n\n  Great Year, Plato\u2019s, 62.\n\n  Greenwich of the sky, 14.\n\n\n  Halley\u2019s comet, 65.\n\n  Hamal, 83.\n\n  Hathor, temple of, 46.\n\n  Hercules, 59.\n\n  Hesperus, 123.\n\n  Hexagon of Orion, 28.\n\n  Hole in the sky, 59.\n\n  Horus, 122.\n\n  Hyades, 108.\n\n  Hydra, 34.\n\n\n  Influence of the stars, 10, 18, 22, 27, 29, 35, 39, 44, 53, 68, 75,\n   93, 102, 110, 116.\n\n  Isis, 97.\n\n\n  Jason, 34.\n\n  Job\u2019s Coffin, 79.\n\n  Job\u2019s Star, 68.\n\n  Jupiter, 121, 123.\n\n\n  Kappa Cassiopei\u00e6, 90.\n    Orionis, 105.\n\n  Karnak, 46.\n\n  Kochab, 49.\n\n\n  Laconian Key, 87.\n\n  Lambda Ophiuchi, 57.\n    Orionis, 105.\n\n  Language for celestial marvels, 61.\n\n  Learning the stars, ease of, 17;\n    best season for, 93.\n\n  Leo, 35.\n\n  Lepus, 107.\n\n  Lewis, G. C., quoted, 25, 97.\n\n  Libra, 70.\n\n  Lockyer, Norman, quoted, 97.\n\n  Longfellow, H. W., quoted, 71.\n\n  Lucky stars, 77, 78.\n\n  Lyra, 61.\n\n\n  Magellan Clouds, R. H. Dana on, 77.\n\n  Marfik, 58.\n\n  Markab, 81.\n\n  Mars, 121, 124.\n\n  Mazzaroth, 98.\n\n  Medusa, head of, 86.\n\n  Megrez, 41.\n\n  Menkalina, 112.\n\n  Menkar, 114.\n\n  Merak, 41.\n\n  Mercury, 122.\n\n  Meridian, 13.\n\n  Mesarthim, 84.\n\n  Milky Way, 17, 18, 27, 56, 64, 72.\n\n  Mintaka, 102.\n\n  Mira, 114.\n\n  Mirach, 81.\n\n  Mirrors, sky views by, 19.\n\n  Mitchel, Gen. O. M., 55.\n\n  Mizar, 41, 47.\n\n  Morning of the year, 21.\n\n  Moses and the Brazen Serpent, 57.\n\n  Mukdim-al Kitaf, 31.\n\n  Murzim, 100.\n\n  Mut, temple of, 46.\n\n  Mystery in the sky, 58.\n\n  8 M., 56.\n\n\n  Names of stars and travellers, 76.\n\n  Nautical Almanac, 122.\n\n  Nebul\u00e6, in Andromeda, 82.\n    in Canes Venatici, 69.\n    in Lyra, 63.\n    in Ophiuchus, 58.\n    in Orion, 103.\n    in Sagittarius, 56.\n    in Virgo, 32.\n\n  New star of 1901, 90.\n\n  Northern Cross, 63.\n\n  Northern Crown, 66.\n\n  North star, 46, 116.\n\n  November meteors, 37.\n\n  Nu Scorpii, 55.\n\n\n  Omicron Ceti, 114.\n\n  Ophiuchus, 57.\n\n  Orion, 101 _et seq._\n\n  Orion group of constellations, 40.\n\n\n  Pearl, the, 66.\n\n  Pegasus, 80.\n\n  Perseus, 85.\n\n  Ph\u00e6d, 41.\n\n  Ph\u00e6ton, 84.\n\n  Phosphorus, 123.\n\n  Pi Orionis, 105.\n\n  Pisces, 85, 115.\n\n  Piscis Austrinus, 75.\n\n  Planets, the, 118;\n    apparent swallowing by sun, 125.\n\n  Plato, quoted, 39.\n\n  Pleiades, 109 _et seq._\n\n  Pointers, the, 42.\n\n  Polaris, 46, 116.\n\n  Pole-stars, succession of, 48.\n\n  Pollux, 113.\n\n  Porrima, 32.\n\n  Pr\u00e6sepe, 38.\n\n  Precession of equinoxes, 47, 84.\n\n  Procyon, 113 _et seq._\n\n  Pulcherrima, 69.\n\n\n  Ras Algethi, 59 _et seq._\n\n  Ras Alhague, 57.\n\n  Reflection, sky seen by, 19;\n    supposed visibility of Jupiter\u2019s moons by, 124.\n\n  Regulus, 35 _et seq._\n\n  Revelation of the stars, 10.\n\n  Revolution of the pole, 48.\n\n  Revolutions of the heavens, 16.\n\n  Rho Ophiuchi, 58.\n\n  Richter, Jean Paul, quoted, 91.\n\n  Rigel, 104.\n\n  Right Ascension, 13.\n\n  Rising stars, attraction of, 29.\n\n  Royal family of sky, 75.\n\n  Royal stars, 35.\n\n  Ruchbah, 88.\n\n\n  Sadachbia, 78.\n\n  Sadalmelik, 77.\n\n  Sadalsuud, 78.\n\n  Sagitta, 79.\n\n  Sagittarius, 56.\n\n  St. Paul and the viper, 57.\n\n  Saiph, 105.\n\n  Saturn, 122, 124.\n\n  Scheat, 81.\n\n  Schedar, 88.\n\n  Scorpio, 55.\n\n  Serpens, 57.\n\n  Set, 122.\n\n  Shakespeare, quoted, 49, 80.\n\n  Sheratan, 84.\n\n  Shield of Orion, 105.\n\n  Sickle, the, 37.\n\n  Sigma Tauri, 109.\n\n  Sirius, 94 _et seq._\n\n  Smyth, Admiral, quoted, 32.\n\n  Sobieski\u2019s Shield, 57, 65.\n\n  Solstices, 13.\n\n  Sophocles, quoted, 67.\n\n  Southern Cross, R. H. Dana on, 77.\n\n  Southern Fish, 75.\n\n  Spica, 29 _et seq._\n\n  Star colors, 44, 83, 89, 90.\n\n  Star magnitudes, 98.\n\n  Streaming of stars, 81, 106.\n\n  Struve invents star color, 106.\n\n  Summer Solstice, 50.\n\n  Sword-hand of Perseus, 86.\n\n  Sword of Orion, 103.\n\n\n  Tent, the, 33.\n\n  Theta Orionis, 103.\n\n  Theta Tauri, 109.\n\n  Three Guides, the, 88.\n\n  Thuban, 45, 48.\n\n  Toorus, 107.\n\n  Tropic of Capricorn, 79;\n    of Cancer, 40.\n\n  Tycho\u2019s star, 90.\n\n\n  Ursa Major, 40.\n\n  Ursa Minor, 46.\n\n  Uru-anna, 101.\n\n\n  Vega, 43, 61 _et seq._\n\n  Venus, 120, 123.\n\n  Vernal Equinox, 21.\n\n  Vindemiatrix, 31.\n\n  Virgin, origin of name, 30.\n\n  Virgo, 29 _et seq._\n\n  Vulpecula et Anser, 80.\n\n\n  \u201cW,\u201d the letter, 87.\n\n  Wesen, 100.\n\n  Whirlpool nebula, 69.\n\n  Whitney, Prof., quoted, 78.\n\n  Winter heavens, glories of, 93.\n\n  Winter Solstice, 93.\n\n\n  \u201cXM\u201d class of stars, 31, 64, 104.\n\n  Xavier de Maistre, quoted, 89.\n\n\n  Year, various beginnings of, 25 _et seq._\n\n\n  Zeta Urs\u00e6 Majoris, 40.\n    Aquarii, 78.\n    Canis Majoris, 100.\n    Herculis, 60.\n    Orionis, 102, 106.\n\n  Zodiac, 84.\n\n  Zubeneschemali, 70.\n\n  Zubenelgenubi, 70.\n\n\nTHE END\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes\n\nA few minor errors in punctuation have been fixed.\n\nIn the section on pronunciation of star and constellation names,\ncombining diacritics may display following the letter they modify in\ncertain fonts.\n\nPage 79: \u201cminimum visibile\u201d changed to \u201cminimum visible\u201d","title":"Round the year with the stars: The chief beauties of the starry heavens as seen with the naked eye","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":30757}