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diff --git a/36741.txt b/36741.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffc6e4d --- /dev/null +++ b/36741.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5728 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Astronomy with an Opera-glass, by Garrett Putman Serviss + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Astronomy with an Opera-glass + A Popular Introduction to the Study of the Starry Heavens + with the Simplest of Optical Instruments + +Author: Garrett Putman Serviss + +Release Date: July 15, 2011 [EBook #36741] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTRONOMY WITH AN OPERA-GLASS *** + + + + +Produced by dkretz and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from +images generously made available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + ASTRONOMY + + WITH AN OPERA-GLASS + + + A POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE STARRY + HEAVENS WITH THE SIMPLEST OF OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS + + + WITH MAPS AND DIRECTIONS TO FACILITATE THE RECOGNITION + OF THE CONSTELLATIONS AND THE PRINCIPAL STARS VISIBLE + TO THE NAKED EYE + + + BY + + GARRETT P. SERVISS + + + "Known are their laws; in harmony unroll + The nineteen-orbed cycles of the Moon. + And all the signs through which Night whirls her car + From belted Orion back to Orion and his dauntless Hound, + And all Poseidon's, all high Zeus' stars + Bear on their beams true messages to man." + POSTE'S ARATUS. + + + _THIRD EDITION_ + + + NEW YORK + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + LONDON: CAXTON HOUSE, PATERNOSTER SQUARE + 1890 + + + COPYRIGHT, 1888, + BY D APPLETON AND COMPANY. + + + + +TO THE READER + + +In the pages that follow, the author has endeavored to encourage the +study of the heavenly bodies by pointing out some of the interesting and +marvelous phenomena of the universe that are visible with little or no +assistance from optical instruments, and indicating means of becoming +acquainted with the constellations and the planets. Knowing that an +opera-glass is capable of revealing some of the most beautiful sights in +the starry dome, and believing that many persons would be glad to learn +the fact, he set to work with such an instrument and surveyed all the +constellations visible in the latitude of New York, carefully noting +everything that it seemed might interest amateur star-gazers. All the +objects thus observed have not been included in this book, lest the +multiplicity of details should deter or discourage the very readers for +whom it was specially written. On the other hand, there is nothing +described as visible with an opera-glass or a field-glass which the +author has not seen with an instrument of that description, and which +any person possessing eye-sight of average quality and a competent glass +should not be able to discern. + +But, in order to lend due interest to the subject, and place it before +the reader in a proper light and true perspective, many facts have been +stated concerning the objects described, the ascertainment of which has +required the aid of powerful telescopes, and to observers with such +instruments is reserved the noble pleasure of confirming with their own +eyes those wonderful discoveries which the looker with an opera-glass +can not hope to behold unless, happily, he should be spurred on to the +possession of a telescope. Yet even to glimpse dimly these distant +wonders, knowing what a closer view would reveal, is a source of no mean +satisfaction, while the celestial phenomena that lie easily within reach +of an opera-glass are sufficient to furnish delight and instruction for +many an evening. + +It should be said that the division of the stars used in this book into +the "Stars of Spring," "Stars of Summer," "Stars of Autumn," and "Stars +of Winter," is purely arbitrary, and intended only to indicate the +seasons when certain constellations are best situated for observation or +most conspicuous. + +The greater part of the matter composing this volume appeared originally +in a series of articles contributed by the author to "The Popular +Science Monthly" in 1887-'88. The reception that those articles met with +encouraged him to revise and enlarge them for publication in the more +permanent form of a book. + + G. P. S. + + BROOKLYN, N. Y., _September, 1888._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + INTRODUCTION 1 + + Popular interest in the phenomena of the heavens. + + The opera-glass as an instrument of observation for beginners + in star-study. + + Testing an opera-glass. + + + CHAPTER I. + + THE STARS OF SPRING 7 + + _Description of the Constellations_--Auriga, the Charioteer; + Berenice's Hair; Cancer, the Crab [the Manger]; Canis + Minor, the Lesser Dog; Corvus, the Crow; Crateris, the + Cup; Gemini, the Twins; Hydra, the Water-Serpent; Leo, + the Lion; Ursa Major, the Greater Bear [the Great Dipper]; + Ursa Minor, the Lesser Bear [the Pole-Star]. + + A circular index-map, maps on a larger scale, of the + constellations described, and pictures of remarkable + objects. + + + CHAPTER II. + + THE STARS OF SUMMER 30 + + _Description of the Constellations_--Aquila, the Eagle; + Booetes, the Herdsman, or Bear-Diver; Canes Venatici, + the Hunting-Dogs; Cygnus, the Swan [the Northern Cross]; + Delphinus, the Dolphin; Draco, the Dragon; Hercules + [the Great Sun-Swarm, 13 M]; Libra, the Balance; Lyra, + the Harp; the Northern Crown; Ophiuchus et Serpens, + the Serpent-bearer and the Serpent; Sagitta, the Arrow; + Sagittarius, the Archer; Scorpio, the Scorpion; + Sobieski's Shield; Taurus Poniatowskii, Poniatowsky's + Bull; Virgo, the Virgin [the Field of the Nebulae]; + Vulpecula, the Little Fox. + + A circular index-map, maps, on a larger scale, of the + constellations described, and pictures of remarkable + objects. + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE STARS OF AUTUMN 60 + + _Description of the Constellations_--Andromeda [the Great + Nebula]; Aquarius, the Water-Bearer; Aries, the Ram; + Capricornus, the Goat; Cassiopeia; Cepheus; Cetus, + the Whale [Mira, the wonderful variable star]; + Pegasus, the Winged Horse. + + Perseus [Algol, the Demon-Star]; Pisces, the Fishes; + Piscis Australis, the Southern Fish; the Triangles. + + A circular index-map, maps on a larger scale, of the + constellations described, and pictures of remarkable + objects. + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE STARS OF WINTER 89 + + _Description of the Constellations_--Argo, Jason's Ship; + Canis Major, the Great Dog [Sirius]; Eridanus, the + river Po; Lepus, the Hare; Monoceros, the Unicorn; + Orion [the Great Nebula]; Taurus, the Bull [the + Pleiades and Hyades]. + + A circular index-map, maps on a larger scale, of the + constellations described, and pictures of remarkable + objects. + + + CHAPTER V. + + THE MOON, THE PLANETS, AND THE SUN 118 + + Description of lunar "seas," mountains, and "craters," + with a map of the moon, and cuts showing its appearance + with a field-glass. + + _Opera-glass observation of_--The sun (one cut), Mercury, + Venus, Mars, Jupiter and his satellites (one cut), + Saturn, Uranus (three cuts). + + + + +ASTRONOMY WITH AN OPERA-GLASS. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Star-gazing was never more popular than it is now. In every civilized +country many excellent telescopes are owned and used, often to very good +purpose, by persons who are not practical astronomers, but who wish to +see for themselves the marvels of the sky, and who occasionally stumble +upon something that is new even to professional star-gazers. Yet, +notwithstanding this activity in the cultivation of astronomical +studies, it is probably safe to assert that hardly one person in a +hundred knows the chief stars by name, or can even recognize the +principal constellations, much less distinguish the planets from the +fixed stars. And of course they know nothing of the intellectual +pleasure that accompanies a knowledge of the stars. Modern astronomy is +so rapidly and wonderfully linking the earth and the sun together, with +all the orbs of space, in the bonds of close physical relationship, that +a person of education and general intelligence can offer no valid excuse +for not knowing where to look for Sirius or Aldebaran, or the Orion +nebula, or the planet Jupiter. As Australia and New Zealand and the +islands of the sea are made a part of the civilized world through the +expanding influence of commerce and cultivation, so the suns and planets +around us are, in a certain sense, falling under the dominion of the +restless and resistless mind of man. We have come to possess vested +intellectual interests in Mars and Saturn, and in the sun and all his +multitude of fellows, which nobody can afford to ignore. + +A singular proof of popular ignorance of the starry heavens, as well as +of popular curiosity concerning any uncommon celestial phenomenon, is +furnished by the curious notions prevailing about the planet Venus. When +Venus began to attract general attention in the western sky in the early +evenings of the spring of 1887, speculation quickly became rife about +it, particularly on the great Brooklyn Bridge. As the planet hung +dazzlingly bright over the New Jersey horizon, some people appeared to +think it was the light of Liberty's torch, mistaking the bronze +goddess's real flambeau for a part of the electric-light system of the +metropolis. Finally (to judge from the letters written to the +newspapers, and the questions asked of individuals supposed to know +something about the secrets of the sky), the conviction seems to have +become pretty widely distributed that the strange light in the west was +no less than an electrically illuminated balloon, nightly sent skyward +by Mr. Edison, for no other conceivable reason than a wizardly desire to +mystify his fellow-men. I have positive information that this ridiculous +notion has been actually entertained by more than one person of +intelligence. And as Venus glowed with increasing splendor in the serene +evenings of June, she continued to be mistaken for some petty artificial +light instead of the magnificent world that she was, sparkling out there +in the sunshine like a globe of burnished silver. Yet Venus as an +evening star is not so rare a phenomenon that people of intelligence +should be surprised at it. Once in every 584 days she reappears at the +same place in the sunset sky-- + + "Gem of the crimson-colored even, + Companion of retiring day." + +No eye can fail to note her, and as the nearest and most beautiful of +the Earth's sisters it would seem that everybody should be as familiar +with her appearance as with the face of a friend. But the popular +ignorance of Venus, and the other members of the planetary family to +which our mother, the Earth, belongs, is only an index of the denser +ignorance concerning the stars--the brothers of our great father, the +Sun. I believe this ignorance is largely due to mere indifference, +which, in its turn, arises from a false and pedantic method of +presenting astronomy as a creature of mathematical formulae, and a humble +handmaiden of the art of navigation. I do not, of course, mean to cast +doubt upon the scientific value of technical work in astronomy. The +science could not exist without it. Those who have made the spectroscope +reveal the composition of the sun and stars, and who are now making +photography picture the heavens as they are, and even reveal phenomena +which lie beyond the range of human vision, are the men who have taken +astronomy out of its swaddling-clothes, and set it on its feet as a +progressive science. But when one sees the depressing and repellent +effect that has evidently been produced upon the popular mind by the +ordinary methods of presenting astronomy, one can not resist the +temptation to utter a vigorous protest, and to declare that this +glorious science is not the grinning mathematical skeleton that it has +been represented to be. + +Perhaps one reason why the average educated man or woman knows so little +of the starry heavens is because it is popularly supposed that only the +most powerful telescopes and costly instruments of the observatory are +capable of dealing with them. No greater mistake could be made. It does +not require an optical instrument of any kind, nor much labor, as +compared with that expended in the acquirement of some polished +accomplishments regarded as indispensable, to give one an acquaintance +with the stars and planets which will be not only pleasurable but +useful. And with the aid of an opera-glass most interesting, gratifying, +and, in some instances, scientifically valuable observations may be made +in the heavens. I have more than once heard persons who knew nothing +about the stars, and probably cared less, utter exclamations of surprise +and delight when persuaded to look at certain parts of the sky with a +good glass, and thereafter manifest an interest in astronomy of which +they would formerly have believed themselves incapable. + +Being convinced that whoever will survey the heavens with a good +opera-glass will feel repaid many fold for his time and labor, I have +undertaken to point out some of the objects most worthy of attention, +and some of the means of making acquaintance with the stars. + +First, a word about the instrument to be used. Galileo made his famous +discoveries with what was, in principle of construction, simply an +opera-glass. This form of telescope was afterward abandoned because very +high magnifying powers could not be employed with it, and the field of +view was restricted. But, on account of its brilliant illumination of +objects looked at, and its convenience of form, the opera-glass is still +a valuable and, in some respects, unrivaled instrument of observation. + +In choosing an opera-glass, see first that the object-glasses are +achromatic, although this caution is hardly necessary, for all modern +opera-glasses, worthy of the name, are made with achromatic objectives. +But there are great differences in the quality of the work. If a glass +shows a colored fringe around a bright object, reject it. Let the +diameter of the object-glasses, which are the large lenses in the end +farthest from the eye, be not less than an inch and a half. The +magnifying power should be at least three or four diameters. A familiar +way of estimating the magnifying power is by looking at a brick wall +through one barrel of the opera-glass with one eye, while the other eye +sees the wall without the intervention of the glass. Then notice how +many bricks seen by the naked eye are required to equal in thickness one +brick seen through the glass. That number represents the magnifying +power. + +The instrument used by the writer in making most of the observations for +this book has object-glasses 1.6 inch in diameter, and a magnifying +power of about 3.6 times. + +See that the fields of view given by the two barrels of the opera-glass +coincide, or blend perfectly together. If one appears to partially +overlap the other when looking at a distant object, the effect is very +annoying. This fault arises from the barrels of the opera-glass being +placed too far apart, so that their optical centers do not coincide with +the centers of the observer's eyes. + +[Illustration: A VERY BAD FIELD.] + +Occasionally, on account of faulty centering of the lenses, a double +image is given of objects looked at, as illustrated in the accompanying +cut. In such a case the glass is worthless; but if the effect is simply +the addition of a small, crescent-shaped extension on one side of the +field of view without any reduplication, the fault may be overlooked, +though it is far better to select a glass that gives a perfectly round +field. Some glasses have an arrangement for adjusting the distance +between the barrels to suit the eyes of different persons, and it would +be well if all were made adjustable in the same way. + +Don't buy a cheap glass, but don't waste your money on fancy mountings. +What the Rev. T. W. Webb says of telescopes is equally true of +opera-glasses: "Inferior articles may be showily got up, and the outside +must go for nothing." There are a few makers whose names, stamped upon +the instrument, may generally be regarded as a guarantee of excellence. +But the best test is that of actual performance. I have a field-glass +which I found in a pawn-shop, that has no maker's name upon it, but in +some respects is quite capable of bearing comparison with the work of +the best advertised opticians. And this leads me to say that, by the +exercise of good judgment, one may occasionally purchase superior +glasses at very reasonable prices in the pawn-shops. Ask to be shown the +old and well-tried articles; you may find among them a second-hand glass +of fine optical properties. If the lenses are not injured, one need not +trouble one's self about the worn appearance of the outside of the +instrument; so much the more evidence that somebody has found it well +worth using. + +A good field or marine glass is in some respects better than an +opera-glass for celestial observations. It possesses a much higher +magnifying power, and this gives sometimes a decided advantage. But, on +the other hand, its field of view is smaller, rendering it more +difficult to find and hold objects. Besides, it does not present as +brilliant views of scattered star-clusters as an opera-glass does. For +the benefit of those who possess field-glasses, however, I have included +in this brief survey certain objects that lie just beyond the reach of +opera-glasses, but can be seen with the larger instruments. + +I have thought it advisable in the descriptions of the constellations +which follow to give some account of their mythological origin, both +because of the historical interest which attaches to it, and because, +while astronomers have long since banished the constellation figures +from their maps, the names which the constellations continue to bear +require some explanation, and they possess a literary and romantic +interest which can not be altogether disregarded in a work that is not +intended for purely scientific readers. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE STARS OF SPRING. + + +Having selected your glass, the next thing is to find the stars. Of +course, one could sweep over the heavens at random on a starry night and +see many interesting things, but he would soon tire of such aimless +occupation. The observer must know what he is looking at in order to +derive any real pleasure or satisfaction from the sight. + +It really makes no difference at what time of the year such observations +are begun, but for convenience I will suppose that they are begun in the +spring. We can then follow the revolution of the heavens through a year, +at the end of which the diligent observer will have acquired a competent +knowledge of the constellations. The circular map, No. 1, represents the +appearance of the heavens at midnight on the 1st of March, at eleven +o'clock on the 15th of March, at ten o'clock on the 1st of April, at +nine o'clock on the 15th of April, and at eight o'clock on the 1st of +May. The reason why a single map can thus be made to show the places of +the stars at different hours in different months will be plain upon a +little reflection. In consequence of the earth's annual journey around +the sun, the whole heavens make one apparent revolution in a year. This +revolution, it is clear, must be at the rate of 30 deg. in a month, since +the complete circuit comprises 360 deg.. But, in addition to the annual +revolution, there is a diurnal revolution of the heavens which is caused +by the earth's daily rotation upon its axis, and this revolution must, +for a similar reason, be performed at the rate of 15 deg. for each of the +twenty-four hours. It follows that in two hours of the daily revolution +the stars will change their places to the same extent as in one month of +the annual revolution. It follows also that, if one could watch the +heavens throughout the whole twenty-four hours, and not be interrupted +by daylight, he would behold the complete circuit of the stars just as +he would do if, for a year, he should look at the heavens at a +particular hour every night. Suppose that at nine o'clock on the 1st of +June we see the star Spica on the meridian; in consequence of the +rotation of the earth, two hours later, or at eleven o'clock, Spica will +be 30 deg. west of the meridian. But that is just the position which Spica +would occupy at nine o'clock on the 1st of July, for in one month +(supposing a month to be accurately the twelfth part of a year) the +stars shift their places 30 deg. toward the west. If, then, we should make a +map of the stars for nine o'clock on the 1st of July, it would answer +just as well for eleven o'clock on the 1st of June, or for seven o'clock +on the 1st of August. + +[Illustration: MAP 1.] + +The center of the map is the zenith, or point overhead. The reader must +now exercise his imagination a little, for it is impossible to represent +the true appearance of the concave of the heavens on flat paper. Holding +the map over your head, with the points marked East, West, North, and +South in their proper places, conceive of it as shaped like the inside +of an open umbrella, the edge all around extending clear down to the +horizon. Suppose you are facing the south, then you will see, up near +the zenith, the constellation of Leo, which can be readily recognized on +the map by six stars that mark out the figure of a sickle standing +upright on its handle. The large star in the bottom of the handle is +Regulus. Having fixed the appearance and situation of this constellation +in your mind, go out-of-doors, face the south, and try to find the +constellation in the sky. With a little application you will be sure to +succeed. + +Using Leo as a basis of operations, your conquest of the sky will now +proceed more rapidly. By reference to the map you will be able to +recognize the twin stars of Gemini, southwest of the zenith and high up; +the brilliant lone star, Procyon, south of Gemini; the dazzling Sirius, +flashing low down in the southwest; Orion, with all his brilliants, +blazing in the west; red Aldebaran and the Pleiades off to his right; +and Capella, bright as a diamond, high up above Orion, toward the north. +In the southeast you will recognize the quadrilateral of Corvus, with +the remarkably white star Spica glittering east of it. + +Next face the north. If you are not just sure where north is, try a +pocket-compass. This advice is by no means unnecessary, for there are +many intelligent persons who are unable to indicate true north within +many degrees, though standing on their own doorstep. Having found the +north point as near as you can, look upward about forty degrees from the +horizon, and you will see the lone twinkler called the north or pole +star. Forty degrees is a little less than half-way from the horizon to +the zenith. + +By the aid of the map, again, you will be able to find, high up in the +northeast, near the zenith, the large dipper-shaped figure in Ursa +Major, and, when you have once noticed that the two stars in the outer +edge of the bowl of the Dipper point almost directly to the pole-star, +you will have an unfailing means of picking out the latter star +hereafter, when in doubt.[A] Continuing the curve of the Dipper-handle, +in the northeast, your eye will be led to a bright reddish star, which +is Arcturus, in the constellation Booetes. + + [A] Let the reader remember that the distance between the two + stars in the brim of the bowl of the Dipper is about ten + degrees, and he will have a measuring-stick that he can + apply in estimating other distances in the heavens. + +In the same way you will be able to find the constellations Cassiopeia, +Cepheus, Draco, and Perseus. Don't expect to accomplish it all in an +hour. You may have to devote two or three evenings to such observation, +and make many trips indoors to consult the map, before you have mastered +the subject; but when you have done it you will feel amply repaid for +your exertions, and you will have made for yourself silent friends in +the heavens that will beam kindly upon you, like old neighbors, on +whatever side of the world you may wander. + +Having fixed the general outlines and location of the constellations in +your mind, and learned to recognize the chief stars, take your +opera-glass and begin with the constellation Leo and the star Regulus. +Contrive to have some convenient rest for your arms in holding the +glass, and thus obtain not only comfort but steadiness of vision. A +lazy-back chair makes a capital observing-seat. Be very particular, too, +to get a sharp focus. Remember that no two persons' eyes are alike, and +that even the eyes of the same observer occasionally require a change. +In looking for a difficult object, I have sometimes suddenly brought the +sought-for phenomenon into view by a slight turn of the focusing-screw. + +You will at once be gratified by the increased brilliancy of the star as +seen by the glass. If the night is clear, it will glow like a diamond. +Yet Regulus, although ranked as a first-magnitude star, and of great +repute among the ancient astrologers, is far inferior in brilliancy to +such stars as Capella and Arcturus, to say nothing of Sirius. + +By consulting map No. 2 you will next be able to find the celebrated +star bearing the name of the Greek letter Gamma ([gamma]). If you had a +telescope, you would see this star as a close and beautiful double, of +contrasted colors. But it is optically double, even with an opera-glass. +You can not fail to see a small star near it, looking quite close if the +magnifying power of your glass is less than three times. You will be +struck by the surprising change of color in turning from Regulus to +Gamma--the former is white and the latter deep yellow. It will be well +to look first at one and then at the other, several times, for this is a +good instance of what you will meet with many times in your future +surveys of the heavens--a striking contrast of color in neighboring +stars. One can thus comprehend that there is more than one sense in +which to understand the Scriptural declaration that "one star differeth +from another in glory." The radiant point of the famous November +meteors, which, in 1833 and 1866, filled the sky with fiery showers, is +near Gamma. Turn next to the star in Leo marked Zeta ([zeta]). If your +glass is a pretty large and good one, and your eye keen, you will easily +see three minute companion stars keeping company with Zeta, two on the +southeast, and one, much closer, toward the north. The nearest of the +two on the south is faint, being only between the eighth and ninth +magnitude, and will probably severely test your powers of vision. Next +look at Epsilon ([epsilon]), and you will find near it two +seventh-magnitude companions, making a beautiful little triangle. + +[Illustration: MAP 2.] + +Away at the eastern end of the constellation, in the tail of the +imaginary Lion, upon whose breast shines Regulus, is the star Beta +([beta]) Leonis, also called Denebola. It is almost as bright as its +leader, Regulus, and you will probably be able to catch a tinge of blue +in its rays. South of Denebola, at a distance of nineteen minutes of +arc, or somewhat more than half the apparent diameter of the moon, you +will see a little star of the sixth magnitude, which is one of the +several "companions" for which Denebola is celebrated. There is another +star of the eighth magnitude in the same direction from Denebola, but at +a distance of less than five minutes, and this you may be able to +glimpse with a powerful field-glass, under favorable conditions. I have +seen it well with a field-glass of 1.6-inch aperture, and a magnifying +power of seven times. But it requires an experienced eye and steady +vision to catch this shy twinkler. + +When looking for a faint and difficult object, the plan pursued by +telescopists is to avert the eye from the precise point upon which the +attention is fixed, in order to bring a more sensitive part of the +retina into play than that usually employed. Look toward the edge of the +field of view, while the object you are seeking is in the center, and +then, if it can be seen at all with your glass, you will catch sight of +it, as it were, out of the corner of your eye. The effect of seeing a +faint star in this way, in the neighborhood of a large one, whose rays +hide it from direct vision, is sometimes very amusing. The little star +seems to dart out into view as through a curtain, perfectly distinct, +though as immeasurably minute as the point of a needle. But the instant +you direct your eyes straight at it, presto! it is gone. And so it will +dodge in and out of sight as often as you turn your eyes. + +If you will sweep carefully over the whole extent of Leo, whose chief +stars are marked with their Greek-letter names on our little map, you +will be impressed with the power of your glass to bring into sight many +faint stars in regions that seem barren to the naked eye. An opera-glass +of 1.5 aperture will show ten times as many stars as the naked eye can +see. + +A word about the "Lion" which this constellation is supposed to +represent. It requires a vivid imagination to perceive the outlines of +the celestial king of beasts among the stars, and yet somebody taught +the people of ancient India and the old Egyptians to see him there, and +there he has remained since the dawn of history. Modern astronomers +strike him out of their charts, together with all the picturesque +multitude of beasts and birds and men and women that bear him company, +but they can not altogether banish him, or any of his congeners, for the +old names, and, practically, the old outlines of the constellations are +retained, and always will be retained. The Lion is the most conspicuous +figure in the celebrated zodiac of Dendera; and, indeed, there is +evidence that before the story of Hercules and his labors was told this +lion was already imagined shining among the stars. It was characteristic +of the Greeks that they seized him for their own, and tried to rob him +of his real antiquity by pretending that Jupiter had placed him among +the stars in commemoration of Hercules's victory over the Nemaean lion. +In the Hebrew zodiac Leo represented the Lion of Judah. It was thus +always a lion that the ancients thought they saw in this constellation. + +In the old star-maps the Lion is represented as in the act of springing +upon his prey. His face is to the west, and the star Regulus is in his +heart. The sickle-shaped figure covers his breast and head, Gamma being +in the shoulder, Zeta in the mane of the neck, Mu and Epsilon in the +cheek, and Lambda in the jaws. The fore-paws are drawn up to the breast +and represented by the stars Zi and Omicron. Denebola is in the tuft of +the tail. The hind-legs are extended downward at full length, in the act +of springing. Starting from the star Delta in the hip, the row +consisting of Theta, Iota, Tau, and Upsilon, shows the line of the +hind-legs. + +Leo had an unsavory reputation among the ancients because of his +supposed influence upon the weather. The greatest heat of summer was +felt when the sun was in this constellation: + + "Most scorching is the chariot of the Sun, + And waving spikes no longer hide the furrows + When he begins to travel with the Lion." + +Looking now westwardly from the Sickle of Leo, at a distance about equal +to twice the length of the Sickle, your eye will be caught by a small +silvery spot in the sky lying nearly between two rather faint stars. +This is the famous Praesepe, or Manger, in the center of the +constellation Cancer. The two stars on either side of it are called the +Aselli, or the Ass's Colts, and the imagination of the ancients pictured +them feeding from their silver manger. Turn your glass upon the Manger +and you will see that it consists of a crowd of little stars, so small +and numerous that you will probably not undertake to count them, unless +you are using a large field-glass. Galileo has left a delightful +description of his surprise and gratification when he aimed his +telescope at this curious cluster and other similar aggregations of +stars and discovered what they really were. Using his best instrument, +he was able to count thirty-six stars in the Manger. The Manger was a +famous weather-sign in olden times, and Aratus, in his "Diosemia," +advises his readers to-- + + "... watch the Manger: like a little mist + Far north in Cancer's territory it floats. + Its confines are two faintly glimmering stars; + These are two asses that a manger parts, + Which suddenly, when all the sky is clear, + Sometimes quite vanishes, and the two stars + Seem to have closer moved their sundered orbs. + No feeble tempest then will soak the leas; + A murky manger with both stars + Shining unaltered is a sign of rain." + +Like other old weather-saws, this probably possesses a gleam of sense, +for it is only when the atmosphere is perfectly transparent that the +Manger can be clearly seen; when the air is thick with mist, the +harbinger of coming storm, it fades from sight. + +The constellation Cancer, or the Crab, was represented by the Egyptians +under the figure of a scarabaeus. The observer will probably think that +it is as easy to see a beetle as a crab there. Cancer, like Leo, is one +of the twelve constellations of the Zodiac, the name applied to the +imaginary zone 16 deg. degrees wide and extending completely around the +heavens, the center of which is the ecliptic or annual path of the sun. +The names of these zodiacal constellations, in their order, beginning at +the west and counting round the circle, are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, +Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, +and Pisces. Cancer has given its name to the circle called the Tropic of +Cancer, which indicates the greatest northerly declination of the sun in +summer, and which he attains on the 21st or 22d of June. But, in +consequence of the precession of the equinoxes, all of the zodiacal +constellations are continually shifting toward the east, and Cancer has +passed away from the place of the summer solstice, which is now to be +found in Gemini. + +Below the Manger, a little way toward the south, your eye will be caught +by a group of four or five stars of about the same brightness as the +Aselli. This marks the head of Hydra, and the glass will show a striking +and beautiful geometrical arrangement of the stars composing it. Hydra +is a very long constellation, and trending southward and eastward from +the head it passes underneath Leo, and, sweeping pretty close down to +the horizon, winds away under Corvus, the tail reaching to the eastern +horizon. The length of this skyey serpent is about 100 deg.. Its stars are +all faint, except Alphard, or the Hydra's Heart, a second-magnitude +star, remarkable for its lonely situation, southwest of Regulus. A line +from Gamma Leonis through Regulus points it out. It is worth looking at +with the glass on account of its rich orange-tint. + +Hydra is fabled to be the hundred-headed monster that was slain by +Hercules. It must be confessed that there is nothing very monstrous +about it now except its length. The most timid can look upon it without +suspecting its grisly origin. + +Coming back to the Manger as a starting-point, look well up to the north +and west, and at a distance somewhat less than that between Regulus and +the Manger you will see a pair of first-magnitude stars, which you will +hardly need to be informed are the celebrated Twins, from which the +constellation Gemini takes its name. The star marked [alpha] in the map +is Castor, and the star marked [beta] is Pollux. No classical reader +needs to be reminded of the romantic origin of these names. + +A sharp contrast in the color of Castor and Pollux comes out as soon as +the glass is turned upon them. Castor is white, with occasionally, +perhaps, a suspicion of a green ray in its light. Pollux is deep yellow. +Castor is a celebrated double star, but its components are far too close +to be separated with an opera-glass, or even the most powerful +field-glass. You will be at once interested by the singular _cortege_ of +small stars by which both Castor and Pollux are surrounded. These little +attendant stars, for such they seem, are arrayed in symmetrical +groups--pairs, triangles, and other figures--which, it seems difficult +to believe, could be unintentional, although it would be still more +difficult to suggest any reason why they should be arranged in that way. + +[Illustration: MAP 3.] + +Our map will show you the position of the principal stars of the +constellation. Castor and Pollux are in the heads of the Twins, while +the row of stars shown in the map Xi ([xi]), Gamma ([gamma]), Nu ([nu]), +Mu ([mu]), and Eta ([eta]), marks their feet, which are dipped in the +edge of the Milky-Way. One can spend a profitable and pleasurable +half-hour in exploring the wonders of Gemini. The whole constellation, +from head to foot, is gemmed with stars which escape the naked eye, but +it sparkles like a bead-spangled garment when viewed with the glass. +Owing to the presence of the Milky-Way, the spectacle around the feet of +the Twins is particularly magnificent. And here the possessor of a good +opera-glass can get a fine view of a celebrated star-cluster known in +the catalogues as 35 M. It is situated a little distance northwest of +the star Eta, and is visible to the naked eye, on a clear, moonless +night, as a nebulous speck. With a good glass you will see two wonderful +streams of little stars starting, one from Eta and the other from Mu, +and running parallel toward the northwest; 35 M is situated between +these star-streams. The stars in the cluster are so closely aggregated +that you will be able to clearly separate only the outlying ones. The +general aspect is like that of a piece of frosted silver over which a +twinkling light is playing. A field-glass brings out more of the +component stars. The splendor of this starry congregation, viewed with a +powerful telescope, may be guessed at from Admiral Smyth's picturesque +description: "It presents a gorgeous field of stars, from the ninth to +the sixteenth magnitude, but with the center of the mass less rich than +the rest. From the small stars being inclined to form curves of three or +four, and often with a large one at the root of the curve, it somewhat +reminds one of the bursting of a sky-rocket." And Webb adds that there +is an "elegant festoon near the center, starting with a reddish star." + +No one can gaze upon this marvelous phenomenon, even with the +comparatively low powers of an opera-glass, and reflect that all these +swarming dots of light are really suns, without a stunning sense of the +immensity of the material universe. + +It is an interesting fact that the summer solstice, or the point which +the sun occupies when it attains its greatest northerly declination, on +the longest day of the year, is close by this great cluster in Gemini. +In the glare of the sunshine those swarming stars are then concealed +from our sight, but with the mind's eye we can look past and beyond our +sun, across the incomprehensible chasm of space, and behold them still +shining, their commingled rays making our great God of Day seem but a +lonely wanderer in the expanse of the universe. + +It was only a short distance southwest of this cluster that one of the +most celebrated discoveries in astronomy was made. There, on the evening +of March 13, 1781, William Herschel observed a star whose singular +aspect led him to put a higher magnifying power on his telescope. The +higher power showed that the object was not a star but a planet, or a +comet, as Herschel at first supposed. It was the planet Uranus, whose +discovery "at one stroke doubled the breadth of the sun's dominions." + +The constellation of Gemini, as the names of its two chief stars +indicate, had its origin in the classic story of the twin sons of +Jupiter and Leda: + + "Fair Leda's twins, in time to stars decreed, + One fought on foot, one curbed the fiery steed." + +Castor and Pollux were regarded by both the Greeks and the Romans as the +patrons of navigation, and this fact crops out very curiously in the +adventures of St. Paul. After his disastrous shipwreck on the island of +Melita he embarked again on a more prosperous voyage in a ship bearing +the name of these very brothers. "And after three months," writes the +celebrated apostle (Acts xxviii, 11) "we departed in a ship of +Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and +Pollux." We may be certain that Paul was acquainted with the +constellation of Gemini, not only because he was skilled in the learning +of his times, but because, in his speech on Mars Hill, he quoted a line +from the opening stanzas of Aratus's "Phenomena," a poem in which the +constellations are described. + +The map will enable you next to find Procyon, or the Little Dog-Star, +more than twenty degrees south of Castor and Pollux, and almost directly +below the Manger. This star will interest you by its golden-yellow color +and its brightness, although it is far inferior in the latter respect to +Sirius, or the Great Dog-Star, which you will see flashing splendidly +far down beneath Procyon in the southwest. About four degrees northwest +of Procyon is a third-magnitude star, called Gomelza, and the glass will +show you two small stars which make a right-angled triangle with it, the +nearer one being remarkable for its ruddy color. + +Procyon is especially interesting because it is attended by an invisible +star, which, while it has escaped all efforts to detect it with powerful +telescopes, nevertheless reveals its presence by the effect of its +attraction upon Procyon. It is a curious fact that both of the so-called +Dog-Stars are thus attended by obscure or dusky companion-stars, which, +notwithstanding their lack of luminosity, are of great magnitude. In the +case of Sirius, the improvement in telescopes has brought the mysterious +attendant into view, but Procyon's mate remains hidden from our eyes. +But it can not escape the ken of the mathematician, whose penetrating +mental vision has, in more than one instance, outstripped the +discoveries of the telescope. Almost half a century ago the famous +Bessel announced his conclusion--in the light of later developments it +may well be called discovery--that both Sirius and Procyon were binary +systems, consisting each of a visible and an invisible star. He +calculated the probable period of revolution, and found it to be, in +each case, approximately fifty years. Sixteen years after Bessel's +death, one of Alvan Clark's unrivaled telescopes at last revealed the +strange companion of Sirius, a huge body, half as massive as the giant +Dog-Star itself, but ten thousand times less brilliant, and more recent +observations have shown that its period of revolution is within six or +seven months of the fifty years assigned by Bessel. If some of the +enormous telescopes that have been constructed in the past few years +should succeed in rendering Procyon's companion visible also, it is +highly probable that Bessel's prediction would receive another +substantial fulfillment. + +The mythological history of Canis Minor is somewhat obscure. According +to various accounts it represents one of Diana's hunting-dogs, one of +Orion's hounds, the Egyptian dog-headed god Anubis, and one of the dogs +that devoured their master Actaeon after Diana had turned him into a +stag. The mystical Dr. Seiss leaves all the ancient myth-makers far in +the rear, and advances a very curious theory of his own about this +constellation, in his "Gospel in the Stars," which is worth quoting as +an example of the grotesque fancies that even in our day sometimes +possess the minds of men when they venture beyond the safe confines of +this terraqueous globe. After summarizing the various myths we have +mentioned, he proceeds to identify Procyon, putting the name of the +chief star for the constellation, "as the starry symbol of those +heavenly armies which came forth along with the King of kings and Lord +of lords to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, to make an end +of misrule and usurpation on earth, and clear it of all the wild beasts +which have been devastating it for these many ages." + +The reader will wonder all the more at this rhapsody after he has +succeeded in picking out the modest Little Dog in the sky. + +Sirius, Orion, Aldebaran, and the Pleiades, all of which you will +perceive in the west and southwest, are generally too much involved in +the mists of the horizon to be seen to the best advantage at this +season, although it will pay you to take a look through the glass at +Sirius. But the splendid star Capella, in the constellation Auriga, may +claim a moment's attention. You will find it high up in the northwest, +half-way between Orion and the pole-star, and to the right of the Twins. +It has no rival near, and its creamy-white light makes it one of the +most beautiful as well as one of the most brilliant stars in the +heavens. Its constitution, as revealed by the spectroscope, resembles +that of our sun, but the sun would make but a sorry figure if removed to +the side of this giant star. About seven and a half degrees above +Capella, and a little to the left, you will see a second-magnitude star +called Menkalina. Two and a half times as far to the left, or south, in +the direction of Orion, is another star of equal brightness to +Menkalina. This is El Nath, and marks the place where the foot of +Auriga, or the Charioteer, rests upon the point of the horn of Taurus. +Capella, Menkalina, and El Nath make a long triangle which covers the +central part of Auriga. The naked eye shows two or three misty-looking +spots within this triangle, one to the right of El Nath, one in the +upper or eastern part of the constellation, near the third-magnitude +star Theta ([theta]), and another on a line drawn from Capella to El +Nath, but much nearer to Capella. Turn your glass upon these spots, and +you will be delighted by the beauty of the little stars to whose united +rays they are due. + +El Nath has around it some very remarkable rows of small stars, and the +whole constellation of Auriga, like that of Gemini, glitters with +star-dust, for the Milky-Way runs directly through it. + +With a powerful field-glass you may try a glimpse at the rich +star-clusters marked 38 M, 37 M, and 33^7. + +[Illustration: MAP 4.] + +The mythology of Auriga is not clear, but the ancients seem to have been +of one mind in regarding the constellation as representing the figure of +a man carrying a goat and her two kids in his arms. Auriga was also +looked upon as a beneficent constellation, and the goat and kids were +believed to be on the watch to rescue shipwrecked sailors. As Capella, +which represents the fabled goat, shines nearly overhead in winter, and +would ordinarily be the first bright star to beam down through the +breaking clouds of a storm at that season, it is not difficult to +imagine how it got its reputation as the seaman's friend. Dr. Seiss has +so spirited a description of the imaginary figure contained in this +constellation that I can not refrain from quoting it: + +"The figure itself is that of a mighty man seated on the Milky-Way, +holding a band or ribbon in his right hand, and with his left arm +holding up on his shoulder a she-goat which clings to his neck and looks +out in astonishment upon the terrible bull; while in his lap are two +frightened little kids which he supports with his great hand." + +It is scarcely necessary to add that Dr. Seiss insists that Auriga, as a +constellation, was invented long before the time of the Greeks, and was +intended prophetically to represent that Good Shepherd who was to come +and rescue the sinful world. + +If any reader wishes to exercise his fancy by trying to trace the +outlines of this figure, he will find the head of Auriga marked by the +star Delta ([delta]) and the little group near it. Capella, in the heart +of the Goat, is just below his left shoulder, and Menkalina marks his +right shoulder. El Nath is in his right foot, and Iota ([iota]) in his +left foot. The stars Epsilon ([epsilon]), Zeta ([zeta]), Eta ([eta]), +and Lambda ([lambda]) shine in the kids which lie in Auriga's lap. The +faint stars scattered over the eastern part of the constellation are +sometimes represented as forming a whip with many lashes, which the +giant flourishes with his right hand. + +Let us turn back to Denebola in the Lion's Tail. Now glance from it down +into the southeast, and you will see a brilliant star flashing well +above the horizon. This is Spica, the chief twinkler of Virgo, and it is +marked on our circular map. Then look into the northwest, and at about +the same distance from Denebola, but higher above the horizon than +Spica, you will catch the sparkling of a large, reddish star. It is +Arcturus in Booetes. The three, Denebola, Spica, and Arcturus, mark the +corners of a great equilateral triangle. Nearly on a line between +Denebola and Arcturus, and somewhat nearer to the former, you will +perceive a curious twinkling, as if gossamers spangled with dew-drops +were entangled there. One might think the old woman of the nursery rhyme +who went to sweep the cobwebs out of the sky had skipped this corner, or +else that its delicate beauty had preserved it even from her housewifely +instincts. This is the little constellation called Berenice's Hair. Your +opera-glass will enable you to count twenty or thirty of the largest +stars composing this cluster, which are arranged, as so often happens, +with a striking appearance of geometrical design. The constellation has +a very romantic history. It is related that the young Queen Berenice, +when her husband was called away to the wars, vowed to sacrifice her +beautiful tresses to Venus if he returned victorious over his enemies. +He did return home in triumph, and Berenice, true to her vow, cut off +her hair and bore it to the Temple of Venus. But the same night it +disappeared. The king was furious, and the queen wept bitterly over the +loss. There is no telling what might have happened to the guardians of +the temple, had not a celebrated astronomer named Conon led the young +king and queen aside in the evening and showed them the missing locks +shining transfigured in the sky. He assured them that Venus had placed +Berenice's lustrous ringlets among the stars, and, as they were not +skilled in celestial lore, they were quite ready to believe that the +silvery swarm they saw near Arcturus had never been there before. And so +for centuries the world has recognized the constellation of Berenice's +Hair. + +Look next at Corvus and Crater, the Crow and the Cup, two little +constellations which you will discover on the circular map, and of which +we give a separate representation in Map 5. You will find that the stars +Delta ([delta]) and Eta ([eta]), in the upper left-hand corner of the +quadrilateral figure of Corvus, make a striking appearance. The little +star Zeta ([zeta]) is a very pretty double for an opera-glass. There is +a very faint pair of stars close below and to the right of Beta +([beta]). This forms a severe test. Only a good opera-glass will show +these two stars as a single faint point of light. A field-glass, +however, will show both, one being considerably fainter than the other. +Crater is worth sweeping over for the pretty combinations of stars to be +found in it. + +You will observe that the interminable Hydra extends his lengthening +coils along under both of the constellations. In fact, both the Cup and +the Crow are represented as standing upon the huge serpent. The outlines +of a cup are tolerably well indicated by the stars included under the +name Crater, but the constellation of the Crow might as well have borne +any other name so far as any traceable likeness is concerned. One of the +legends concerning Corvus avers that it is the daughter of the King of +Phocis, who was transformed into a crow to escape the pursuit of +Neptune. She is certainly safe in her present guise. + +Arcturus and Spica, and their companions, may be left for observation to +a more convenient season, when, having risen higher, they can be studied +to better advantage. It will be well, however, to merely glance at them +with the glass in order to note the great difference of color--Spica +being brilliantly white and Arcturus almost red. + +[Illustration: MAP 5.] + +We will now turn to the north. You have already been told how to find +the pole-star. Look at it with your glass. The pole-star is a famous +double, but its minute companion can only be seen with a telescope. As +so often happens, however, it has another companion for the opera-glass, +and this latter is sufficiently close and small to make an interesting +test for an inexperienced observer armed with a glass of small power. It +must be looked for pretty close to the rays of the large star, with such +a glass. It is of the seventh magnitude. With a large field-glass +several smaller companions may be seen, and a very excellent glass may +show an 8.5-magnitude star almost hidden in the rays of the +seventh-magnitude companion. + +With the aid of map No. 6 find in Ursa Minor, which is the +constellation to which the pole-star belongs, the star Beta ([beta]), +which is also called Kochab (the star marked [alpha] in the map is the +pole-star). Kochab has a pair of faint stars nearly north of it, about +one degree distant. With a small glass these may appear as a single +star, but a stronger glass will show them separately. + +[Illustration: MAP 6.] + +And now for Ursa Major and the Great Dipper--Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, +and the other constellations represented on the circular map, being +rather too near the horizon for effective observation at this time of +the year. First, as the easiest object, look at the star in the middle +of the handle of the Dipper (this handle forms the tail of Ursa Major), +and a little attention will show you, without the aid of a glass, if +your eye-sight is good, that the star is double. A smaller star seems to +be almost in contact with it. The larger of these two stars is called +Mizar and the smaller Alcor--the Horse and his Rider the Arabs said. +Your glass will, of course, greatly increase the distance between Alcor +and Mizar, and will also bring out a clear difference of color +distinguishing them. Now, if you have a very powerful glass, you may be +able to see the Sidus Ludovicianum, a minute star which a German +astronomer discovered more than a hundred and fifty years ago, and, +strangely enough, taking it for a planet, named it after a German +prince. The position of the Sidus Ludovicianum, with reference to Mizar +and Alcor, is represented in the accompanying sketch. You must look very +sharply if you expect to see it, and your opera-glass will have to be a +large and strong one. A field-glass, however, can not fail to show it. + +Sweep along the whole length of the Dipper's handle, and you will +discover many fine fields of stars. Then look at the star Alpha +([alpha]) in the outer edge of the bowl nearest to the pole-star. There +is a faint star, of about the eighth magnitude, near it, in the +direction of Beta ([beta]). This will prove a very difficult test. You +will have to try it with averted vision. If you have a field-glass, +catch it first with that, and, having thus fixed its position in your +mind, try to find it with the opera-glass. Its distance is a little over +half that between Mizar and Alcor. It is of a reddish color. + +You will notice nearly overhead three pairs of pretty bright stars in a +long, bending row, about half-way between Leo and the Dipper. These mark +three of Ursa Major's feet, and each of the pairs is well worth looking +at with a glass, as they are beautifully grouped with stars invisible to +the naked eye. The letters used to designate the stars forming these +pairs will be found upon our map of Ursa Major. The scattered group of +faint stars beyond the bowl of the Dipper forms the Bear's head, and you +will find that also a field worth a few minutes' exploration. + +[Illustration: MIZAR, ALCOR, AND THE SIDUS LUDOVICIANUM.] + +The two bears, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, swinging around the pole of +the heavens, have been conspicuous in the star-lore of all ages. +According to fable, they represent the nymph Calisto, with whom Jupiter +was in love, and her son Arcas, who were both turned into bears by Juno, +whereupon Jupiter, being unable to restore their form, did the next best +thing he could by placing them among the stars. Ursa Major is Calisto, +or Helica, as the Greeks called the constellation. The Greek name of +Ursa Minor was Cynosura. The use of the pole-star in navigation dates +back at least to the time of the Phoenicians. The observer will note +the uncomfortable position of Ursa Minor, attached to the pole by the +end of its long tail. + +But, after all, no one can expect to derive from such studies as these +any genuine pleasure or satisfaction unless he is mindful of the real +meaning of what he sees. The actual truth seems almost too stupendous +for belief. The mind must be brought into an attitude of profound +contemplation in order to appreciate it. From this globe we can look out +in every direction into the open and boundless universe. Blinded and +dazzled during the day by the blaze of that star, of which the earth is +a near and humble dependent, we are shut in as by a curtain. But at +night, when our own star is hidden, our vision ranges into the depths of +creation, and we behold them sparkling with a multitude of other suns. +With so simple an aid as that of an opera-glass we penetrate still +deeper into the profundities of space, and thousands more of these +strange, far-away suns come into sight. They are arranged in pairs, +sets, rows, streams, clusters--here they gleam alone in distant +splendor, there they glow and flash in mighty swarms. This is a look +into heaven more splendid than the imagination of Bunyan pictured; here +is a celestial city whose temples are suns, and whose streets are the +pathways of light. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE STARS OF SUMMER. + + +Let us now suppose that the Earth has advanced for three months in its +orbit since we studied the stars of spring, and that, in consequence, +the heavens have made one quarter of an apparent revolution. Then we +shall find that the stars which in spring shone above the western +horizon have been carried down out of sight, while the constellations +that were then in the east have now climbed to the zenith, or passed +over to the west, and a fresh set of stars has taken their place in the +east. In the present chapter we shall deal with what may be called the +stars of summer; and, in order to furnish occupation for the observer +with an opera-glass throughout the summer months, I have endeavored to +so choose the constellations in which our explorations will be made, +that some of them shall be favorably situated in each of the months of +June, July, and August. The circular map represents the heavens at +midnight on the 1st of June; at eleven o'clock, on the 15th of June; at +ten o'clock, on the 1st of July; at nine o'clock, on the 15th of July; +and at eight o'clock, on the 1st of August. Remembering that the center +of the map is the point over his head, and that the edge of it +represents the circle of the horizon, the reader, by a little attention +and comparison with the sky, will be able to fix in his mind the +relative situation of the various constellations. The maps that follow +will show him these constellations on a larger scale, and give him the +names of their chief stars. + +[Illustration: MAP 7.] + +The observer need not wait until midnight on the 1st of June in order to +find some of the constellations included in our map. Earlier in the +evening, at about that date, say at nine o'clock, he will be able to see +many of these constellations, but he must look for them farther toward +the east than they are represented in the map. The bright stars in +Booetes and Virgo, for instance, instead of being over in the southwest, +as in the map, will be near the meridian; while Lyra, instead of shining +high overhead, will be found climbing up out of the northeast. It would +be well to begin at nine o'clock, about the 1st of June, and watch the +motions of the heavens for two or three hours. At the commencement of +the observations you will find the stars in Booetes, Virgo, and Lyra in +the positions I have just mentioned, while half-way down the western sky +will be seen the Sickle of Leo. The brilliant Procyon and Capella will +be found almost ready to set in the west and northwest, respectively. +Between Procyon and Capella, and higher above the horizon, shine the +twin stars in Gemini. + +In an hour Procyon, Capella, and the Twins will be setting, and Spica +will be well past the meridian. In another hour the observer will +perceive that the constellations are approaching the places given to +them in our map, and at midnight he will find them all in their assigned +positions. A single evening spent in observations of this sort will +teach him more about the places of the stars than he could learn from a +dozen books. + +Taking, now, the largest opera-glass you can get (I have before said +that the diameter of the object-glasses should not be less than 1.5 +inch, and, I may add, the larger they are the better), find the +constellation Scorpio, and its chief star Antares. The map shows you +where to look for it at midnight on the 1st of June. If you prefer to +begin at nine o'clock at that date, then, instead of looking directly in +the south for Scorpio, you must expect to see it just rising in the +southeast. You will recognize Antares by its fiery color, as well as by +the striking arrangement of its surrounding stars. There are few +constellations which bear so close a resemblance to the objects they are +named after as Scorpio. It does not require a very violent exercise of +the imagination to see in this long, winding trail of stars a gigantic +scorpion, with its head to the west, and flourishing its upraised sting +that glitters with a pair of twin stars, as if ready to strike. Readers +of the old story of Phaeton's disastrous attempt to drive the chariot of +the Sun for a day will remember it was the sight of this threatening +monster that so terrified the ambitious youth as he dashed along the +Zodiac, that he lost control of Apollo's horses, and came near burning +the earth up by running the Sun into it. + +Antares rather gains in redness when viewed with a glass. Its color is +very remarkable, and it is a curious circumstance that with powerful +telescopes a small, bright-green star is seen apparently almost touching +it. Antares belongs to Secchi's third type of suns, that in which the +spectroscopic appearances suggest the existence of a powerfully +absorptive atmosphere, and which are believed on various grounds to be, +as Lockyer has said, "in the last visible stage of cooling"; in other +words, almost extinct. This great, red star probably in actual size +exceeds our sun, and no one can help feeling the sublime nature of those +studies which give us reason to think that here we can actually behold +almost the expiring throes of a giant brother of our giant sun. Only, +the lifetime of a sun is many millions of years, and its gradual +extinction, even after it has reached a stage as advanced as that of +Antares is supposed to be, may occupy a longer time than the whole +duration of the human race. + +A little close inspection with the naked eye will show three fifth- or +sixth-magnitude stars above Antares and Sigma ([sigma]), which form, +with those stars, the figure of an irregular pentagon. An opera-glass +shows this figure very plainly. The nearest of these stars to Antares, +the one directly above it, is known by the number 22, and belongs to +Scorpio, while the farthest away, which marks the northernmost corner of +the pentagon, is Rho in Ophiuchus. Try a powerful field-glass upon the +two stars just named. Take 22 first. You will without much difficulty +perceive that it has a little star under its wing, below and to the +right, and more than twice as far away above it there is another faint +star. Then turn to Rho. Look sharp and you will catch sight of two +companion stars, one close to Rho on the right and a little below, and +the other still closer and directly above Rho. The latter is quite +difficult to be seen distinctly, but the sight is a very pretty one. + +The opera-glass will show a number of faint stars scattered around +Antares. Turn now to Beta ([beta]) in Scorpio, with the glass. A very +pretty pair of stars will be seen hanging below [beta]. Sweeping +downward from this point to the horizon you will find many beautiful +star-fields. The star marked Nu ([nu]) is a double which you will be +able to separate with a powerful field-glass, the distance between its +components being 40". + +[Illustration: MAP 8.] + +And next let us look at a star-cluster. You will see on Map No. 8 an +object marked 4 M, near Antares. Its designation means that it is No. 4 +in Messier's catalogue of nebulae. It is not a true nebula, but a closely +compacted cluster of stars. With the opera-glass, if you are looking in +a clear and moonless night, you will see it as a curious nebulous speck. +With a field-glass its real nature is more apparent, and it is seen to +blaze brighter toward the center. It is, in fact, one of those universes +within the universe where thousands of suns are associated together by +some unknown law of aggregation into assemblages of whose splendor the +slight view that we can get gives us but the faintest conception. + +The object above and to the right of Antares, marked in the map 80 M., +is a nebula, and although the nebula itself is too small to be seen with +an opera-glass (a field-glass shows it as a mere wisp of light), yet +there is a pretty array of small stars in its neighborhood worth looking +at. Besides, this nebula is of special interest, because in 1860 a star +suddenly took its place. At least, that is what seemed to have happened. +What really did occur, probably, was that a variable or temporary star, +situated between us and the nebula, and ordinarily too faint to be +perceived, received a sudden and enormous accession of light, and blazed +up so brightly as to blot out of sight the faint nebula behind it. If +this star should make its appearance again, it could easily be seen with +an opera-glass, and so it will not be useless for the reader to know +where to look for it. The quarter of the heavens with which we are now +dealing is famous for these celestial conflagrations, if so they may be +called. The first temporary star of which there is any record appeared +in the constellation of the Scorpion, near the head, 134 years before +Christ. It must have been a most extraordinary phenomenon, for it +attracted attention all over the world, and both Greek and Chinese +annals contain descriptions of it. In 393 A. D. a temporary star shone +out in the tail of Scorpio. In 827 A. D. Arabian astronomers, under the +Caliph Al-Mamoun, the son of Haroun-al-Raschid, who broke into the great +pyramid, observed a temporary star, that shone for four months in the +constellation of the Scorpion. In 1203 there was a temporary star, of a +bluish color, in the tail of Scorpio, and in 1578 another in the head of +the constellation. Besides these there are records of the appearance of +four temporary stars in the neighboring constellation of Ophiuchus, one +of which, that of 1604, is very famous, and will be described later on. +It is conceivable that these strange outbursts in and near Scorpio may +have had some effect in causing this constellation to be regarded by the +ancients as malign in its influence. + +We shall presently see some examples of star-clusters and nebulae with +which the instruments we are using are better capable of dealing than +with the one described above. In the mean time, let us follow the +bending row of stars from Antares toward the south and east. When you +reach the star Mu ([mu]), you are not unlikely to stop with an +exclamation of admiration, for the glass will separate it into two stars +that, shining side by side, seem trying to rival each other in +brightness. But the next star below [mu], marked Zeta ([zeta]), is even +more beautiful. It also separates into two stars, one being reddish and +the other bluish in color. The contrast in a clear night is very +pleasing. But this is not all. Above the two stars you will notice a +curious nebulous speck. Now, if you have a powerful field-glass, here is +an opportunity to view one of the prettiest sights in the heavens. The +field-glass not only makes the two stars appear brighter, and their +colors more pronounced, but it shows a third, fainter star below them, +making a small triangle, and brings other still fainter stars into +sight, while the nebulous speck above turns into a charmingly beautiful +little star-cluster, whose components are so close that their rays are +inextricably mingled in a maze of light. This little cut is an attempt +to represent the scene, but no engraving can reproduce the life and +sparkle of it. + +[Illustration: ZETA SCORPIONIS.] + +Following the bend of the Scorpion's tail upward, we come to the pair of +stars in the sting. These, of course, are thrown wide apart by the +opera-glass. Then let us sweep off to the eastward a little way and find +the cluster known as 7 M. You will see it marked on the map. Above it, +and near enough to be included in the same field of view, is 6 M., a +smaller cluster. Both of these have a sparkling appearance with an +opera-glass, and by close attention some of the separate stars in 7 M. +may be detected. With a field-glass these clusters become much more +striking and starry looking, and the curious radiated structure of 7 M. +comes out. + +In looking at such objects we can not too often recall to our minds the +significance of what we see--that these glimmering specks are the lights +in the windows of the universe which carry to us, across inconceivable +tracts of space, the assurance that we and our little system are not +alone in the heavens; that all around us, and even on the very confines +of immensity, Nature is busy, as she is here, and the laws of light, +heat, gravitation (and why not of life?), are in full activity. + +The clusters we have just been looking at lie on the borders of Scorpio +and Sagittarius. Let us cross over into the latter constellation, which +commemorates the centaur Chiron. We are now in another, and even a +richer, region of wonders. The Milky-Way, streaming down out of the +northeast, pours, in a luminous flood, through Sagittarius, inundating +that whole region of the heavens with seeming deeps and shallows, and +finally bursting the barriers of the horizon disappears, only to glow +with redoubled splendor in the southern hemisphere. The stars Zeta +([zeta]), Tau ([tau]), Sigma ([sigma]), Phi ([phi]), Lambda ([lambda]), +and Mu ([mu]) indicate the outlines of a figure sometimes called the +Milk-Dipper, which is very evident when the eye has once recognized it. +On either side of the upturned handle of this dipper-like figure lie +some of the most interesting objects in the sky. Let us take the star +[mu] for a starting-point. Sweep downward and to the right a little +way, and you will be startled by a most singular phenomenon that has +suddenly made its appearance in the field of view of your glass. You +may, perhaps, be tempted to congratulate yourself on having got ahead of +all the astronomers, and discovered a comet. It is really a combination +of a star-cluster with a nebula, and is known as 8 M. Sir John Herschel +has described the "nebulous folds and masses" and dark oval gaps which +he saw in this nebula with his large telescope at the Cape of Good Hope. +But no telescope is needed to make it appear a wonderful object; an +opera-glass suffices for that, and a field-glass reveals still more of +its marvelous structure. + +The reader will recollect that we found the summer solstice close to a +wonderful star-swarm in the feet of Gemini. Singularly enough the winter +solstice is also near a star-cluster. It is to be found near a line +drawn from 8 M. to the star [mu] Sagittarii, and about one third of the +way from the cluster to the star. There is another less conspicuous +star-cluster still closer to the solstitial point here, for this part of +the heavens teems with such aggregations. + +On the opposite side of the star [mu]--that is to say, above and a +little to the left--is an entirely different but almost equally +attractive spectacle, the swarm of stars called 24 M. Here, again, the +field-glass easily shows its superiority over the opera-glass, for +magnifying power is needed to bring out the innumerable little twinklers +of which the cluster is composed. But, whether you use an opera-glass or +a field-glass, do not fail to gaze long and steadily at this island of +stars, for much of its beauty becomes evident only after the eye has +accustomed itself to disentangle the glimmering rays with which the +whole field of view is filled. Try the method of averted vision, and +hundreds of the finest conceivable points of light will seem to spring +into view out of the depths of the sky. The necessity of a perfectly +clear night, and the absence of moonlight, can not be too much insisted +upon for observations such as these. Everybody knows how the moonlight +blots out the smaller stars. A slight haziness, or smoke, in the air +produces a similar effect. It is as important to the observer with an +opera-glass to have a transparent atmosphere as it is to one who would +use a telescope; but, fortunately, the work of the former is not so much +interfered with by currents of air. Always avoid the neighborhood of any +bright light. Electric lights in particular are an abomination to +star-gazers. + +The cloud of stars we have just been looking at is in a very rich region +of the Milky-Way, in the little modern constellation called "Sobieski's +Shield," which we have not named upon our map. Sweeping slowly upward +from 24 M. a little way with the field-glass, we will pass in succession +over three nebulous-looking spots. The second of these, counting upward, +is the famous Horseshoe nebula. Its wonders are beyond the reach of our +instrument, but its place may be recognized. Look carefully all around +this region, and you will perceive that the old gods, who traveled this +road (the Milky-Way was sometimes called the pathway of the gods), trod +upon golden sands. Off a little way to the east you will find the rich +cluster called 25 M. But do not imagine the thousands of stars that your +opera-glass or field-glass reveals comprise all the riches of this +Golconda of the heavens. You might ply the powers of the greatest +telescope in a vain attempt to exhaust its wealth. As a hint of the +wonders that lie hidden here, let me quote Father Secchi's description +of a starry spot in this same neighborhood, viewed with the great +telescope at Rome. After telling of "beds of stars superposed upon one +another," and of the wonderful geometrical arrangement of the larger +stars visible in the field, he adds: + +"The greater number are arranged in spiral arcs, in which one can count +as many as ten or twelve stars of the ninth to the tenth magnitude +following one another in a curve, like beads upon a string. Sometimes +they form rays which seem to diverge from a common focus, and, what is +very singular, one usually finds, either at the center of the rays, or +at the beginning of the curve, a more brilliant star of a red color, +which seems to lead the march. It is impossible to believe that such an +arrangement can be accidental." + +The reader will recall the somewhat similar description that Admiral +Smyth and Mr. Webb have given of a star-cluster in Gemini (see Chapter +I). + +The milky look of the background of the Galaxy is, of course, caused by +the intermingled radiations of inconceivably minute and inconceivably +numerous stars, thousands of which become separately visible, the number +thus distinguishable varying with the size of the instrument. But the +most powerful telescope yet placed in human hands can not sound these +starry deeps to the bottom. The evidence given by Prof. Holden, the +Director of the Lick Observatory, on this point is very interesting. +Speaking of the performance of the gigantic telescope on Mount Hamilton, +thirty-six inches in aperture, he says: + +"The Milky-Way is a wonderful sight, and I have been much interested to +see that there is, even with our superlative power, no final resolution +of its finer parts into stars. There is always the background of +unresolved nebulosity on which hundreds and thousands of stars are +studded--each a bright, sharp, separate point." + +The groups of stars forming the eastern half of the constellation of +Sagittarius are worth sweeping over with the glass, as a number of +pretty pairs may be found there. + +Sagittarius stands in the old star-maps as a centaur, +half-horse-half-man, facing the west, with drawn bow, and +arrow pointed at the Scorpion. + +[Illustration: MAP 9.] + +Next let us pass to the double constellation adjoining Scorpio and +Sagittarius on the north--Ophiuchus and the Serpent. These +constellations, as our map shows, are curiously intermixed. The +imagination of the old star-gazers, who named them, saw here the figure +of a giant grasping a writhing serpent with his hands. The head of the +serpent is under the Northern Crown, and its tail ends over the +star-gemmed region that we have just described, called "Sobieski's +Shield." Ophiuchus stands, as figured in Flamsteed's "Atlas," upon the +back of the Scorpion, holding the serpent with one hand below the neck, +this hand being indicated by the pair of stars marked Epsilon +([epsilon]) and Delta ([delta]), and with the other near the tail. The +stars Tau ([tau]) and Nu ([nu]) indicate the second hand. The giant's +face is toward the observer, and the star Alpha ([alpha]), also called +Ras Alhague, shines in his forehead, while Beta ([beta]) and Gamma +([gamma]) mark his right shoulder. Ophiuchus has been held to represent +the famous physician AEsculapius. One may well repress the tendency to +smile at these fanciful legends when he reflects upon their antiquity. +There is no doubt that this double constellation is at least three +thousand years old--that is to say, for thirty centuries the imagination +of men has continued to shape these stars into the figures of a gigantic +man struggling with a huge serpent. If it possesses no other interest, +then it at least has that which attaches to all things ancient. Like +many other of the constellations it has proved longer-lived than the +mightiest nations. While Greece flourished and decayed, while Rome rose +and fell, while the scepter of civilization has passed from race to +race, these starry creations of fancy have shone on unchanged. The mind +that would ignore them now deserves compassion. + +The reader will observe a little circle in the map, and near it the +figures 1604. This indicates the spot where one of the most famous +temporary stars on record appeared in the year 1604. At first it was far +brighter than any other star in the heavens; but it quickly faded, and +in a little over a year disappeared. It is particularly interesting, +because Kepler--the quaintest, and not far from the greatest, figure in +astronomical history--wrote a curious book about it. Some of the +philosophers of the day argued that the sudden outburst of the wonderful +star was caused by the chance meeting of atoms. Kepler's reply was +characteristic, as well as amusing: + +"I will tell those disputants, my opponents, not my own opinion, but my +wife's. Yesterday, when I was weary with writing, my mind being quite +dusty with considering these atoms, I was called to supper, and a salad +I had asked for was set before me. 'It seems, then,' said I, aloud, +'that if pewter dishes, leaves of lettuce, grains of salt, drops of +water, vinegar and oil, and slices of egg, had been flying about in the +air from all eternity, it might at last happen by chance that there +would come a salad.' 'Yes,' says my wife, 'but not so nice and +well-dressed as this of mine is.'" + +While there are no objects of special interest for the observer with an +opera-glass in Ophiuchus, he will find it worth while to sweep over it +for what he may pick up, and, in particular, he should look at the group +of stars southeast of [beta] and [gamma]. These stars have been shaped +into a little modern asterism called Taurus Poniatowskii, and it will be +noticed that five of them mark the outlines of a letter V, resembling +the well-known figure of the Hyades. + +Also look at the stars in the head of Serpens, several of which form a +figure like a letter [X]. A little west of Theta ([theta]) in the tail +of Serpens, is a beautiful swarm of little stars, upon which a +field-glass may be used with advantage. The star [theta] is itself a +charming double, just within the separating power of a very powerful +field-glass under favorable circumstances, the component stars being +only about one third of a minute apart. + +Do not fail to notice the remarkable subdivisions of the Milky-Way in +this neighborhood. Its current seems divided into numerous channels and +bays, interspersed with gaps that might be likened to islands, and the +star [theta] appears to be situated upon one of these islands of the +galaxy. This complicated structure of the Milky-Way extends downward to +the horizon, and upward through the constellation Cygnus, and of its +phenomenal appearance in that region we shall have more to say further +on. + +Directly north of Ophiuchus is the constellation Hercules, interesting +as occupying that part of the heavens toward which the proper motion of +the sun is bearing the earth and its fellow-planets, at the rate, +probably, of not less than 160,000,000 miles in a year--a stupendous +voyage through space, of whose destination we are as ignorant as the +crew of a ship sailing under sealed orders, and, like whom, we must +depend upon such inferences as we can draw from courses and distances, +for no other information comes to us from the flagship of our squadron. + +[Illustration: MAP 10.] + +In the accompanying map we have represented the beautiful constellations +Lyra and the Northern Crown, lying on either side of Hercules. The +reader should note that the point overhead in this map is not far from +the star Eta ([eta]) in Hercules. The bottom of the map is toward the +south, the right-hand side is west, and the left-hand side east. It is +important to keep these directions in mind, in comparing the map with +the sky. For instance, the observer must not expect to look into the +south and see Hercules half-way up the sky, with Lyra a little east of +it; he must look for Hercules nearly overhead, and Lyra a little east +of the zenith. The same precautions are not necessary in using the maps +of Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Ophiuchus, because those constellations are +nearer the horizon, and so the observer does not have to imagine the map +as being suspended over his head. + +The name Hercules sufficiently indicates the mythological origin of the +constellation, and yet the Greeks did not know it by that name, for +Aratus calls it "the Phantom whose name none can tell." The Northern +Crown, according to fable, was the celebrated crown of Ariadne, and Lyra +was the harp of Orpheus himself, with whose sweet music he charmed the +hosts of Hades, and persuaded Pluto to yield up to him his lost +Eurydice. + +With the aid of the map you will be able to recognize the principal +stars and star-groups in Hercules, and will find many interesting +combinations of stars for yourself. An object of special interest is the +celebrated star-cluster 13 M. You will find it on the map between the +stars Eta ([eta]) and Zeta ([zeta]). While an opera-glass will only show +it as a faint and minute speck, lying nearly between two little stars, +it is nevertheless well worth looking for, on account of the great +renown of this wonderful congregation of stars. Sir William Herschel +computed the number of stars contained in it as about fourteen thousand. +It is roughly spherical in shape, though there are many straggling stars +around it evidently connected with the cluster. In short, it is _a ball +of suns_. The reader should not mistake what that implies, however. +These suns, though truly solar bodies, are probably very much smaller +than our sun. Mr. Gore has computed their average diameter to be +forty-five thousand miles, and the distance separating each from the +next to be 9,000,000,000 miles. It may not be uninteresting to inquire +what would be the appearance of the sky to dwellers within such a system +of suns. Adopting Mr. Gore's estimates, and supposing 9,000,000,000 +miles to be very nearly the uniform distance apart of the stars in the +cluster, and forty-five thousand miles their uniform diameter, then, +starting with a single star in the center, their arrangement might be +approximately in concentric spherical shells, situated about +9,000,000,000 miles apart. The first shell, counting outward from the +center, would contain a dozen stars, each of which, as seen by an +observer stationed upon a planet at the center of the cluster, would +shine eleven hundred times as bright as Sirius appears to us. The number +of the stars in each shell would increase as they receded from the +center in proportion to the squares of the radii of the successive +shells, while their luminosity, as seen from the center, would vary +inversely as those squares. Still, the outermost stars--the total number +being limited to fourteen or fifteen thousand--would appear to our +observer at the center of the system about five times as brilliant as +Sirius. + +It is clear, then, that he would be dwelling in a sort of perpetual +daylight. His planet might receive from the particular sun around which +it revolved as brilliant a daylight as our sun gives to us, but let us +see what would be the illumination of its night side. Adopting Zoellner's +estimate of the light of the sun as 618,000 times as great as that of +the full moon, and choosing among the various estimates of the light of +Sirius as compared with the sun 1/4000000000 as probably the nearest +the truth, we find that the moon sends us about sixty-five hundred times +as much light as Sirius does. Now, since the dozen stars nearest the +center of the cluster would each appear to our observer eleven hundred +times as bright as Sirius, all of them together would give a little more +than twice as much light as the full moon sheds upon the earth. But as +only half the stars in the cluster would be above the horizon at once we +must diminish this estimate by one half, in order to obtain the amount +of light that our supposititious planet would receive on its night side +from the nearest stars in the cluster. And since the number of these +stars increases with their distance from the center in the same ratio +as their light diminishes, it follows that the total light received from +the cluster would exceed that received from the dozen nearest stars as +many times as there were spherical shells in the cluster. This would be +about fifteen times, and accordingly all the stars together would shed, +at the center, some thirty times as much light as that of the moon. +Dividing this again by two, because only half of the stars could be seen +at once, we find that the night side of our observer's planet would be +illuminated with fifteen times as much light as the full moon sheds upon +the earth. + +It is evident, too, that our observer would enjoy the spectacle of a +starry firmament incomparably more splendid than that which we behold. +Only about three thousand stars are visible to our unassisted eyes at +once on any clear night, and of those only a few are conspicuous, and +two thirds are so faint that they require some attention in order to be +distinguished. But the spectator at the center of the Hercules cluster +would behold some seven thousand stars at once, the faintest of which +would be five times as brilliant as the brightest star in our sky, while +the brighter ones would blaze like nearing suns. One effect of this +flood of starlight would be to shut out from our observer's eyes all the +stars of the outside universe. They would be effaced in the blaze of his +sky, and he would be, in a manner, shut up within his own little +star-system, knowing nothing of the greater universe beyond, in which we +behold his multitude of luminaries, diminished and blended by distance +into a faintly shining speck, floating like a silvery mote in a sunbeam. + +If our observer's planet, instead of being situated in the center of the +cluster, circled around one of the stars at the outer edge of it, the +appearance of his sky would be, in some respects, still more wonderful, +the precise phenomena depending upon the position of the planet's orbit +and the station of the observer. Less than half of his sky would be +filled, at any time, by the stars of the cluster, the other half opening +upon outer space and appearing by comparison almost starless--a vast, +cavernous expanse, with a few faint glimmerings out of its gloomy +depths. The plane of the orbit of his planet being supposed to pass +through the center of the spherical system, our observer would, during +his year, behold the night at one season blazing with the splendors of +the clustered suns, and at another emptied of brilliant orbs and faintly +lighted with the soft glow of the Milky-Way and the feeble flickering of +distant stars, scattered over the dark vault. The position of the orbit, +and the inclination of the planet's axis might be such that the glories +of the cluster would not be visible from one of its hemispheres, +necessitating a journey to the other side of the globe to behold +them.[B] + + [B] A similar calculation of the internal appearances of the + Hercules cluster, which I made, was published in 1887 in + the "New York Sun." + +Of course, it is not to be assumed that the arrangement of the stars in +the cluster actually is exactly that which we have imagined. Still, +whatever the arrangement, so long as the cluster is practically +spherical, and the stars composing it are of nearly uniform size and +situated at nearly uniform distances, the phenomena we have described +would fairly represent the appearances presented to inhabitants of +worlds situated in such a system. As to the possibility of the existence +of such worlds and inhabitants, everybody must draw his own conclusions. +Astronomy, as a science, is silent upon that question. But there shine +the congregated stars, mingling their rays in a message of light, that +comes to us across the gulf, proclaiming their brotherhood with our own +glorious sun. Mathematicians can not unravel the interlocking +intricacies of their orbits, and some would, perhaps _a priori_, have +said that such a system was impossible, but the telescope has revealed +them, and there they are! What purposes they subserve in the economy of +the universe, who shall declare? + +If you have a field-glass, by all means try it upon 13 M. It will give +you a more satisfactory view than an opera-glass is capable of doing, +and will magnify the cluster so that there can be no possibility of +mistaking it for a star. Compare this compact cluster, which only a +powerful telescope can partially resolve into its component stars, with +7 M. and 24 M., described before, in order to comprehend the wide +variety in the structure of these aggregations of stars. + +The Northern Crown, although a strikingly beautiful constellation to the +naked eye, offers few attractions to the opera-glass. Let us turn, then, +to Lyra. I have never been able to make up my mind which of three great +stars is entitled to precedence--Vega, the leading brilliant of Lyra, +Arcturus in Booetes, or Capella in Auriga. They are the three leaders of +the northern firmament, but which of them should be called the chief, is +very hard to say. At any rate, Vega would probably be generally regarded +as the most beautiful, on account of the delicate bluish tinge in its +light, especially when viewed with a glass. There is no possibility of +mistaking this star because of its surpassing brilliancy. Two faint +stars close to Vega on the east make a beautiful little triangle with +it, and thus form a further means of recognition, if any were needed. +Your opera-glass will show that the floor of heaven is powdered with +stars, fine as the dust of a diamond, all around the neighborhood of +Vega, and the longer you gaze the more of these diminutive twinklers you +will discover. + +[Illustration: MAP 11.] + +Now direct your glass to the northernmost of the two little stars near +Vega, the one marked Epsilon ([epsilon]) in the map. You will perceive +that it is composed of two stars of almost equal magnitude. If you had a +telescope of considerable power, you would find that each of these stars +is in turn double. In other words, this wonderful star which appears +single to the unassisted eye, is in reality quadruple, and there is +reason to think that the four stars composing it are connected in +pairs, the members of each pair revolving around their common center +while the two pairs in turn circle around a center common to all. With a +field-glass you will be able to see that the other star near Vega, Zeta +([zeta]), is also double, the distance between its components being +three quarters of a minute, while the two stars in [epsilon] are a +little less than 31/2' apart. The star Beta ([beta]) is remarkably +variable in brightness. You may watch these variations, which run +through a regular period of about 12 days, 213/4 hours, for yourself. +Between Beta and Gamma ([gamma]) lies the beautiful Ring nebula, but it +is hopelessly beyond the reach of the optical means we are employing. + +Let us turn next to the stars in the west. In consulting the +accompanying map of Virgo and Booetes (Map No. 11), the observer is +supposed to face the southwest, at the hours and dates mentioned above +as those to which the circular map corresponds. He will then see the +bright star Spica in Virgo not far above the horizon, while Arcturus +will be half-way up the sky, and the Northern Crown will be near the +zenith. + +The constellation Virgo is an interesting one in mythological story. +Aratus tells us that the Virgin's home was once on earth, where she bore +the name of Justice, and in the golden age all men obeyed her. In the +silver age her visits to men became less frequent, "no longer finding +the spirits of former days"; and, finally, when the brazen age came with +the clangor of war: + + "Justice, loathing that race of men, + Winged her flight to heaven; and fixed + Her station in that region + Where still by night is seen + The Virgin goddess near to bright Booetes." + +The chief star of Virgo, Spica, is remarkable for its pure white light. +To my eye there is no conspicuous star in the sky equal to it in this +respect, and it gains in beauty when viewed with a glass. With the aid +of the map the reader will find the celebrated binary star Gamma +([gamma]) Virginis, although he will not be able to separate its +components without a telescope. It is a curious fact that the star +Epsilon ([epsilon]) in Virgo has for many ages been known as the +Grape-Gatherer. It has borne this name in Greek, in Latin, in Persian, +and in Arabic, the origin of the appellation undoubtedly being that it +was observed to rise just before the sun in the season of the vintage. +It will be observed that the stars [epsilon], [delta], [gamma], [eta], +and [beta], mark two sides of a quadrilateral figure of which the +opposite corner is indicated by Denebola in the tail of Leo. Within this +quadrilateral lies the marvelous Field of the Nebulae, a region where +with adequate optical power one may find hundreds of these strange +objects thronging together, a very storehouse of the germs of suns and +worlds. Unfortunately, these nebulae are far beyond the reach of an +opera-glass, but it is worth while to know where this curious region is, +even if we can not behold the wonders it contains. The stars Omicron +([omicron]), Pi ([pi]), etc., forming a little group, mark the head of +Virgo. + +The autumnal equinox, or the place where the sun crosses the equator of +the heavens on his southerly journey about the 21st of September, is +situated nearly between the stars [eta] and [beta] Virginis, a little +below the line joining them, and somewhat nearer to [eta]. Both [eta] +and [zeta] Virginis are almost exactly upon the equator of the heavens. + +The constellation Libra, lying between Virgo and Scorpio, does not +contain much to attract our attention. Its two chief stars, [alpha] and +[beta], may be readily recognized west of and above the head of Scorpio. +The upper one of the two, [beta], has a singular greenish tint, and the +lower one, [alpha], is a very pretty double for an opera-glass. + +The constellation of Libra appears to have been of later date than the +other eleven members of the zodiacal circle. Its two chief stars at one +time marked the extended claws of Scorpio, which were afterward cut off +(perhaps the monster proved too horrible even for its inventors) to form +Libra. As its name signifies, Libra represents a balance, and this fact +seems to refer the invention of the constellation back to at least three +hundred years before Christ, when the autumnal equinox occurred at the +moment when the sun was just crossing the western border of the +constellation. The equality of the days and nights at that season +readily suggests the idea of a balance. Milton, in "Paradise Lost," +suggests another origin for the constellation of the Balance in the +account of Gabriel's discovery of Satan in paradise: + + "... Now dreadful deeds + Might have ensued, nor only paradise + In this commotion, but the starry cope + Of heaven, perhaps, or all the elements + At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn + With violence of this conflict, had not soon + The Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray, + Hung forth in heaven his golden scales, yet seen + Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign." + +Just north of Virgo's head will be seen the glimmering of Berenice's +Hair. This little constellation was included among those described in +the chapter on "The Stars of Spring," but it is worth looking at again +in the early summer, on moonless nights, when the singular arrangement +of the brighter members of the cluster at once strikes the eye. + +[Illustration: BERENICE'S HAIR.] + +Booetes, whose leading brilliant, Arcturus, occupies the center of our +map, also possesses a curious mythical history. It is called by the +Greeks the Bear-Driver, because it seems continually to chase Ursa +Major, the Great Bear, in his path around the pole. The story is that +Booetes was the son of the nymph Calisto, whom Juno, in one of her +customary fits of jealousy, turned into a bear. Booetes, who had become a +famous hunter, one day roused a bear from her lair, and, not knowing +that it was his mother, was about to kill her, when Jupiter came to the +rescue and snatched them both up into the sky, where they have shone +ever since. Lucan refers to this story when, describing Brutus's visit +to Cato at night, he fixes the time by the position of these +constellations in the heavens: + + "'Twas when the solemn dead of night came on, + When bright Calisto, with her shining son, + Now half the circle round the pole had run." + +Booetes is not specially interesting for our purposes, except for the +splendor of Arcturus. This star has possessed a peculiar charm for me +ever since boyhood, when, having read a description of it in an old +treatise on Uranography, I felt an eager desire to see it. As my search +for it chanced to begin at a season when Arcturus did not rise till +after a boy's bed-time, I was for a long time disappointed, and I shall +never forget the start of surprise and almost of awe with which I +finally caught sight of it, one spring evening, shooting its flaming +rays through the boughs of an apple-orchard, like a star on fire. + +When near the horizon, Arcturus has a remarkably reddish color; but, +after it has attained a high elevation in the sky, it appears rather a +deep yellow than red. There is a scattered cluster of small stars +surrounding Arcturus, forming an admirable spectacle with an opera-glass +on a clear night. To see these stars well, the glass should be slowly +moved about. Many of them are hidden by the glare of Arcturus. The +little group of stars near the end of the handle of the Great Dipper, +or, what is the same thing, the tail of the Great Bear, marks the +upraised hand of Booetes. Between Berenice's Hair and the tail of the +Bear you will see a small constellation called Canes Venatici, the +Hunting-Dogs. On the old star-maps Booetes is represented as holding +these dogs with a leash, while they are straining in chase of the Bear. +You will find some pretty groupings of stars in this constellation. + +And now we will turn to the east. Our next map shows Cygnus, a +constellation especially remarkable for the large and striking figure +that it contains, called the Northern Cross, Aquila the Eagle, the +Dolphin, and the little asterisms Sagitta and Vulpecula. In consulting +the map, the observer is supposed to face toward the east. In Aquila +the curious arrangement of two stars on either side of the chief star of +the constellation, called Altair, at once attracts the eye. Within a +circle including the two attendants of Altair you will probably be able +to see with the naked eye only two or three stars in addition to the +three large ones. Now turn your glass upon the same spot, and you will +see eight or ten times as many stars, and with a field-glass still more +can be seen. Watch the star marked Eta ([eta]), and you will find that +its light is variable, being sometimes more than twice as bright as at +other times. Its changes are periodical, and occupy a little over a +week. + +The Eagle is fabled to have been the bird that Jupiter kept beside his +throne. A constellation called Antinous, invented by Tycho Brahe, is +represented on some maps as occupying the lower portion of the space +given to Aquila. + +The Dolphin is an interesting little constellation, and the ancients +said it represented the very animal on whose back the famous musician +Arion rode through the sea after his escape from the sailors who tried +to murder him. But some modern has dubbed it with the less romantic name +of Job's Coffin, by which it is sometimes called. It presents a very +pretty sight to the opera-glass. + +Cygnus, the swan, is a constellation whose mythological history is not +specially interesting, although, as remarked above, it contains one of +the most clearly marked figures to be found among the stars, the famous +Northern Cross. The outlines of this cross are marked with great +distinctness by the stars Alpha ([alpha]), Epsilon ([epsilon]), Gamma +([gamma]), Delta ([delta]), and Beta ([beta]), together with some +fainter stars lying along the main beam of the cross between [beta] and +[gamma]. The star [beta], also called Albireo, is one of the most +beautiful double stars in the heavens. The components are sharply +contrasted in color, the larger star being golden-yellow, while the +smaller one is a deep, rich blue. With a field-glass of 1.6-inch +aperture and magnifying seven times I have sometimes been able to +divide this pair, and to recognize the blue color of the smaller star. +It will be found a severe test for such a glass. + +[Illustration: MAP 12.] + +About half-way from Albireo to the two stars [zeta] and [epsilon] in +Aquila is a very curious little group, consisting of six or seven stars +in a straight row, with a garland of other stars hanging from the +center. To see it best, take a field-glass, although an opera-glass +shows it. + +I have indicated the place of the celebrated star 61 Cygni in the map, +because of the interest attaching to it as the nearest to us, so far as +we know, of all the stars in the northern hemisphere, and with one +exception the nearest star in all the heavens. Yet it is very faint, and +the fact that so inconspicuous a star should be nearer than such +brilliants as Vega and Arcturus shows how wide is the range of magnitude +among the suns that light the universe. The actual distance of 61 Cygni +is something like 650,000 times as great as the distance from the earth +to the sun. + +The star Omicron ([omicron]) is very interesting with an opera-glass. +The naked eye sees a little star near it. The glass throws them wide +apart, and divides [omicron] itself into two stars. Now, a field-glass, +if of sufficient power, will divide the larger of these stars again into +two--a fine test. + +Sweep around [alpha] and [gamma] for the splendid star-fields that +abound in this neighborhood; also around the upper part of the figure of +the cross. We are here in one of the richest parts of the Milky-Way. +Between the stars [alpha], [gamma], [epsilon], is the strange dark gap +in the galaxy called the Coal-Sack, a sort of hole in the starry +heavens. Although it is not entirely empty of stars, its blackness is +striking in contrast with the brilliancy of the Milky-Way in this +neighborhood. The divergent streams of the great river of light in this +region present a very remarkable appearance. + +[Illustration: MAP 13.] + +Finally, we come to the great dragon of the sky. In using the map of +Draco and the neighboring constellations, the reader is supposed to face +the north. The center of the upper edge of the map is directly over the +observer's head. One of the stories told of this large constellation is +that it represents a dragon that had the temerity to war against +Minerva. The goddess "seized it in her hand, and hurled it, twisted as +it was, into the heavens round the axis of the world, before it had time +to unwind its contortions." Others say it is the dragon that guarded the +golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides, and that was slain by the +redoubtable Hercules. At any rate, it is plainly a monster of the first +magnitude. The stars [beta], [gamma], [xi], [nu], and [mu] represent its +head, while its body runs trailing along, first sweeping in a long +curve toward Cepheus, and then bending around and passing between the +two bears. Try [nu] with your opera-glass, and if you succeed in seeing +it double you may congratulate yourself on your keen sight. The distance +between the stars is about 1'. Notice the contrasted colors of [gamma] +and [beta], the former being a rich orange and the latter white. As you +sweep along the winding way that Draco follows, you will run across many +striking fields of stars, although the heavens are not as rich here as +in the splendid regions that we have just left. You will also find that +Cepheus, although not an attractive constellation to the naked eye, is +worth some attention with an opera-glass. The head and upper part of the +body of Cepheus are plunged in the stream of the Milky Way, while his +feet are directed toward the pole of the heavens, upon which he is +pictured as standing. Cepheus, however, sinks into insignificance in +comparison with its neighbor Cassiopeia, but that constellation belongs +rather to the autumn sky, and we shall pass it by here. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE STARS OF AUTUMN. + + +IN the "Fifth Evening" of that delightful, old, out-of-date book of +Fontenelle's, on the "Plurality of Worlds," the Astronomer and the +Marchioness, who have been making a wonderful pilgrimage through the +heavens during their evening strolls in the park, come at last to the +starry systems beyond the "solar vortex," and the Marchioness +experiences a lively impatience to know what the fixed stars will turn +out to be, for the Astronomer has sharpened her appetite for marvels. + +"Tell me," says she, eagerly, "are they, too, inhabited like the +planets, or are they not peopled? In short, what can we make of them?" + +The Astronomer answers his charming questioner, as we should do to-day, +that the fixed stars are so many suns. And he adds to this information a +great deal of entertaining talk about the planets that may be supposed +to circle around these distant suns, interspersing his conversation with +explanations of "vortexes," and many quaint conceits, in which he is +helped out by the ready wit of the Marchioness. + +Finally, the impressionable mind of the lady is overwhelmed by the +grandeur of the scenes that the Astronomer opens to her view, her head +swims, infinity oppresses her, and she cries for mercy. + +"You show me," she exclaims, "a perspective so interminably long that +the eye can not see the end of it. I see plainly the inhabitants of the +earth; then you cause me to perceive those of the moon and of the other +planets belonging to our vortex (system), quite clearly, yet not so +distinctly as those of the earth. After them come the inhabitants of +planets in the other vortexes. I confess, they seem to me hidden deep in +the background, and, however hard I try, I can barely glimpse them at +all. In truth, are they not almost annihilated by the very expression +which you are obliged to use in speaking of them? You have to call them +inhabitants of one of the planets contained in one out of the infinity +of vortexes. Surely we ourselves, to whom the same expression applies, +are almost lost among so many millions of worlds. For my part, the earth +begins to appear so frightfully little to me that henceforth I shall +hardly consider any object worthy of eager pursuit. Assuredly, people +who seek so earnestly their own aggrandizement, who lay schemes upon +schemes, and give themselves so much trouble, know nothing of the +vortexes! I am sure my increase of knowledge will redound to the credit +of my idleness, and when people reproach me with indolence I shall +reply: 'Ah! if you but knew the history of the fixed stars!'" + +It is certainly true that a contemplation of the unthinkable vastness of +the universe, in the midst of which we dwell upon a speck illuminated by +a spark, is calculated to make all terrestrial affairs appear +contemptibly insignificant. We can not wonder that men for ages regarded +the earth as the center, and the heavens with their lights as tributary +to it, for to have thought otherwise, in those times, would have been to +see things from the point of view of a superior intelligence. It has +taken a vast amount of experience and knowledge to convince men of the +parvitude of themselves and their belongings. So, in all ages they have +applied a terrestrial measure to the universe, and imagined they could +behold human affairs reflected in the heavens and human interests +setting the gods together by the ears. + +[Illustration: MAP. 14.] + +This is clearly shown in the story of the constellations. The tremendous +truth that on a starry night we look, in every direction, into an almost +endless vista of suns beyond suns and systems upon systems, was too +overwhelming for comprehension by the inventors of the constellations. +So they amused themselves, like imaginative children, as they were, by +tracing the outlines of men and beasts formed by those pretty lights, +the stars. They turned the starry heavens into a scroll filled with +pictured stories of mythology. Four of the constellations with which we +are going to deal in this chapter are particularly interesting on this +account. They preserve in the stars, more lasting than parchment or +stone, one of the oldest and most pleasing of all the romantic stories +that have amused and inspired the minds of men--the story of Perseus and +Andromeda--a better story than any that modern novelists have invented. +The four constellations to which I refer bear the names of Andromeda, +Perseus, Cassiopeia, and Cepheus, and are sometimes called, +collectively, the Royal Family. In the autumn they occupy a conspicuous +position in the sky, forming a group that remains unrivaled until the +rising of Orion with his imperial _cortege_. The reader will find them +in Map No. 14, occupying the northeastern quarter of the heavens. + +This map represents the visible heavens at about midnight on September +1st, ten o'clock P. M. on October 1st, and eight o'clock P. M. on +November 1st. At this time the constellations that were near the +meridian in summer will be found sinking in the west, Hercules being low +in the northwest, with the brilliant Lyra and the head of Draco +suspended above it; Aquila, "the eagle of the winds," soars high in the +southwest; while the Cross of Cygnus is just west of the zenith; and +Sagittarius, with its wealth of star-dust, is disappearing under the +horizon in the southwest. + +Far down in the south the observer catches the gleam of a bright lone +star of the first magnitude, though not one of the largest of that +class. It is Fomalhaut, in the mouth of the Southern Fish, Piscis +Australis. A slight reddish tint will be perceived in the light of this +beautiful star, whose brilliance is enhanced by the fact that it shines +without a rival in that region of the sky. Fomalhaut is one of the +important "nautical stars," and its position was long ago carefully +computed for the benefit of mariners. The constellation of Piscis +Australis, which will be found in our second map, does not possess much +to interest us except its splendid leading star. In consulting Map 15, +the observer is supposed to be facing south, or slightly west of south, +and he must remember that the upper part of the map reaches nearly to +the zenith, while at the bottom it extends down to the horizon. + +[Illustration: MAP 15.] + +To the right, or west, of Fomalhaut, and higher up, is the constellation +of Capricornus, very interesting on many accounts, though by no means a +striking constellation to the unassisted eye. The stars Alpha ([alpha]), +called Giedi, and Beta ([beta]), called Dabih, will be readily +recognized, and a keen eye will perceive that Alpha really consists of +two stars. They are about six minutes of arc apart, and are of the third +and the fourth magnitude respectively. These stars, which to the naked +eye appear almost blended into one, really have no physical connection +with each other, and are slowly drifting apart. The ancient astronomers +make no mention of Giedi being composed of two stars, and the reason is +plain, when it is known that in the time of Hipparchus, as Flammarion +has pointed out, their distance apart was not more than two thirds as +great as it is at present, so that the naked eye could not have detected +the fact that there were two of them; and it was not until the +seventeenth century that they got far enough asunder to begin to be +separated by eyes of unusual power. With an ordinary opera-glass they +are thrown well apart, and present a very pretty sight. Considering the +manner in which these stars are separating, the fact that both of them +have several faint companions, which our powerful telescopes reveal, +becomes all the more interesting. A suggestion of Sir John Herschel, +concerning one of these faint companions, that it shines by reflected +light, adds to the interest, for if the suggestion is well founded the +little star must, of course, be actually a planet, and granting that, +then some of the other faint points of light seen there are probably +planets too. It must be said that the probabilities are against +Herschel's suggestion. The faint stars more likely shine with their own +light. Even so, however, these two systems, which apparently have met +and are passing one another, at a distance small as compared with the +space that separates them from us, possess a peculiar interest, like two +celestial fleets that have spoken one another in the midst of the ocean +of space. + +The star Beta, or Dabih, is also a double star. The companion is of a +beautiful blue color, generally described as "sky-blue." It is of the +seventh magnitude, while the larger star is of magnitude three and a +half. The latter is golden-yellow. The blue of the small star can be +seen with either an opera- or a field-glass, but it requires careful +looking and a clear and steady atmosphere. I recollect discovering the +color of this star with a field-glass, and exclaiming to myself, "Why, +the little one is as blue as a bluebell!" before I knew that that was +its hue as seen with a telescope. Trying my opera-glass upon it I found +that the color was even more distinct, although the small star was then +more or less enveloped in the yellow rays of the large one. The distance +between the two stars in Dabih is nearly the same as that between the +components of [epsilon] Lyrae, and the comparative difficulty of +separating them is an instructive example of the effect of a large star +in concealing a small one close beside it. The two stars in [epsilon] +Lyrae are of nearly equal brightness, and are very easily separated and +distinguished, but in [beta] Capricorni, or Dabih, one star is about +twenty times as bright as the other, and consequently the fainter star +is almost concealed in the glare of its more brilliant neighbor. + +With the most powerful glass at your disposal, sweep from the star Zeta +([zeta]) eastward a distance somewhat greater than that separating Alpha +and Beta, and you will find a fifth-magnitude star beside a little +nebulous spot. This is the cluster known as 30 M, one of those +sun-swarms that overwhelm the mind of the contemplative observer with +astonishment, and especially remarkable in this case for the apparent +vacancy of the heavens immediately surrounding the cluster, as if all +the stars in that neighborhood had been drawn into the great assemblage, +leaving a void around it. Of course, with the instrument that our +observer is supposed to be using, merely the _existence_ of this solar +throng can be detected; but, if he sees that it is there, he may be led +to provide himself with a telescope capable of revealing its glories. + +Admiral Smyth remarks that, "although Capricorn is not a striking +object, it has been the very pet of all constellations with +astrologers," and he quotes from an old almanac of the year 1386, that +"whoso is borne in Capcorn schal be ryche and wel lufyd." The +mythological account of the constellation is that it represents the goat +into which Pan was turned in order to escape from the giant Typhon, who +once on a time scared all the gods out of their wits, and caused them to +change themselves into animals, even Jupiter assuming the form of a ram. +According to some authorities, Piscis Australis represents the fish into +which Venus changed herself on that interesting occasion. + +Directly above Piscis Australis, and to the east or left of Capricorn, +the map shows the constellation of Aquarius, or the Water-Bearer. Some +say this commemorates Ganymede, the cup-bearer of the gods. It is +represented in old star-maps by the figure of a young man pouring water +from an urn. The star Alpha ([alpha]) marks his right shoulder, and Beta +([beta]) his left, and Gamma ([gamma]), Zeta ([zeta]), Eta ([eta]), and +Pi ([pi]) indicate his right hand and the urn. From this group a current +of small stars will be recognized, sweeping downward with a curve toward +the east, and ending at Fomalhaut; this represents the water poured from +the urn, which the Southern Fish appears to be drinking. In fact, +according to the pictures in the old maps, the fish succeeds in +swallowing the stream completely, and it vanishes from the sky in the +act of entering his distended mouth! It is worthy of remark that in +Greek, Latin, and Arabic this constellation bears names all of which +signify "a man pouring water." The ancient Egyptians imagined that the +setting of Aquarius caused the rising of the Nile, as he sank his huge +urn in the river to fill it. Alpha Aquarii was called by the Arabs +Sadalmelik, which is interpreted to mean the "king's lucky star," but +whether it proved itself a lucky star in war or in love, and what +particular king enjoyed its benign influence and recorded his gratitude +in its name, we are not informed. Thus, at every step, we find how +shreds of history and bits of superstition are entangled among the +stars. Surely, humanity has been reflected in the heavens as lastingly +as it has impressed itself upon the earth. + +Starting from the group of stars just described as forming the +Water-Bearer's urn, follow with a glass the winding stream of small +stars that represent the water. Several very pretty and striking +assemblages of stars will be encountered in its course. The star Tau +([tau]) is double and presents a beautiful contrast of color, one star +being white and the other reddish-orange--two solar systems, it may be, +apparently neighbors as seen from the earth, in one of which daylight is +white and in the other red! + +Point a good glass upon the star marked Nu ([nu]), and you will see, +somewhat less than a degree and a half to the west of it, what appears +to be a faint star of between the seventh and eighth magnitudes. You +will have to look sharp to see it. It is with your mind's eye that you +must gaze, in order to perceive the wonder here hidden in the depths of +space. That faint speck is a nebula, unrivaled for interest by many of +the larger and more conspicuous objects of that kind. Lord Rosse's great +telescope has shown that in form it resembles the planet Saturn; in +other words, that it consists apparently of a ball surrounded by a ring. +But the spectroscope proves that it is a gaseous mass, and the +micrometer--supposing its distance to be equal to that of the stars, and +we have no reason to think it less--that it must be large enough to fill +the whole space included within the orbit of Neptune! Here, then, as has +been said, we seem to behold a genesis in the heavens. If Laplace's +nebular hypothesis, or any of the modifications of that hypothesis, +represents the process of formation of a solar system, then we may +fairly conclude that such a process is now actually in operation in this +nebula in Aquarius, where a vast ring of nebulous matter appears to have +separated off from the spherical mass within it. This may not be the +true explanation of what we see there, but, whatever the explanation is, +there can be no question of the high significance of this nebula, whose +shape proclaims unmistakably the operation of great metamorphic forces +there. Of course, with his insignificant optical means, our observer can +see nothing of the strange form of this object, the detection of which +requires the aid of the most powerful telescopes, but it is much to know +where that unfinished creation lies, and to see it, even though +diminished by distance to a mere speck of light. + +Turn your glass upon the star shown in the map just above Mu ([mu]) and +Epsilon ([epsilon]). You will find an attractive arrangement of small +stars in its neighborhood. The star marked 104 is double to the naked +eye, and the row of stars below it is well worth looking at. The star +Delta ([delta]) indicates the place where, in 1756, Tobias Mayer +narrowly escaped making a discovery that would have anticipated that +which a quarter of a century later made the name of Sir William Herschel +world-renowned. The planet Uranus passed near Delta in 1756, and Tobias +Mayer saw it, but it moved so slowly that he took it for a fixed star, +never suspecting that his eyes had rested upon a member of the solar +system whose existence was, up to that time, unknown to the inhabitants +of Adam's planet. + +Above Aquarius you will find the constellation Pegasus. It is +conspicuously marked by four stars of about the second magnitude, which +shine at the corners of a large square, called the Great Square of +Pegasus. This figure is some fifteen degrees square, and at once +attracts the eye, there being few stars visible within the +quadrilateral, and no large ones in the immediate neighborhood to +distract attention from it. One of the four stars, however, as will be +seen by consulting Map 15, does not belong to Pegasus, but to the +constellation Andromeda. Mythologically, this constellation represents +the celebrated winged horse of antiquity: + + "Now heaven his further wandering flight confines, + Where, splendid with his numerous stars, he shines." + +The star Alpha ([alpha]) is called Markab; Beta ([beta]) is Scheat, and +Gamma ([gamma]) is Algenib; the fourth star in the square, belonging to +Andromeda, is called Alpheratz. Although Pegasus presents a striking +appearance to the unassisted eye, on account of its great square, it +contains little to attract the observer with an opera-glass. It will +prove interesting, however, to sweep with the glass carefully over the +space within the square, which is comparatively barren to the naked eye, +but in which many small stars will be revealed, of whose existence the +naked-eye observer would be unaware. The star marked Pi ([pi]) is an +interesting double, which can be separated by a good eye without +artificial aid, and which, with an opera-glass, presents a fine +appearance. + +And now we come to Map No. 16, representing the constellations Cetus, +Pisces, Aries, and the Triangles. In consulting it the observer is +supposed to face the southeast. Cetus is a very large constellation, and +from the peculiar conformation of its principal stars it can be readily +recognized. The head is to the east, the star Alpha ([alpha]), called +Menkar, being in the nose of this imaginary inhabitant of the +sky-depths. The constellation is supposed to represent the monster that, +according to fable, was sent by Neptune to devour the fair Andromeda, +but whose bloodthirsty design was happily and gallantly frustrated by +Perseus, as we shall learn from starry mythology further on. + +Although bearing the name Cetus, the Whale, the pictures of the +constellation in the old maps do not present us with the form of a +whale, but that of a most extraordinary scaly creature with enormous +jaws filled with large teeth, a forked tongue, fore-paws armed with +gigantic claws, and a long, crooked, and dangerous-looking tail. Indeed, +Aratus does not call it a "whale," but a "sea-monster," and Dr. Seiss +would have us believe that it was intended to represent the leviathan, +whose terrible prowess is celebrated in the book of Job. + +[Illustration: MAP 16.] + +By far the most interesting object in Cetus is the star Mira. This is a +famous variable--a sun that sometimes shines a thousand-fold more +brilliantly than at others! It changes from the second magnitude to the +ninth or tenth, its period from maximum to maximum being about eleven +months. During about five months of that time it is completely invisible +to the naked eye; then it begins to appear again, slowly increasing in +brightness for some three months, until it shines as a star of the +second magnitude, being then as bright as, if not brighter than, the +most brilliant stars in the constellation. It retains this brilliance +for about two weeks, and then begins to fade again, and, within three +months, once more disappears. There are various irregularities in its +changes, which render its exact period somewhat uncertain, and it does +not always attain the same degree of brightness at its maximum. For +instance, in 1779, Mira was almost equal in brilliance to a +first-magnitude star, but frequently at its greatest brightness it is +hardly equal to an ordinary star of the second magnitude. By the aid of +our little map you will readily be able to find it. You will perceive +that it has a slightly reddish tint. Watch it from one of its maxima, +and you will see it gradually fade from sight until, at last, only the +blackness of the empty sky appears where, a few months before, a +conspicuous star was visible. Keep watch of that spot, and in due course +you will perceive Mira shining there again--a mere speck, but slowly +brightening--and in three months more the wonderful star will blaze +again with renewed splendor. + +Knowing that our own sun is a variable star--though variable only to a +slight degree, its variability being due to the spots that appear upon +its surface in a period of about eleven years--we possess some light +that may be cast upon the mystery of Mira's variations. It seems not +improbable that, in the case of Mira, the surface of the star at the +maximum of spottedness is covered to an enormously greater extent than +occurs during our own sun-spot maxima, so that the light of the star, +instead of being merely dimmed to an almost imperceptible extent, as +with our sun, is almost blotted out. When the star blazes with unwonted +splendor, as in 1779, we may fairly assume that the pent-up forces of +this perishing sun have burst forth, as in a desperate struggle against +extinction. But nothing can prevail against the slow, remorseless, +unswerving progress of that obscuration, which comes from the leaking +away of the solar heat, and which constitutes what we may call the death +of a sun. And that word seems peculiarly appropriate to describe the end +of a body which, during its period of visible existence, not only +presents the highest type of physical activity, but is the parent and +supporter of all forms of life upon the planets that surround it. + +We might even go so far as to say that possibly Mira presents to us an +example of what our sun will be in the course of time, as the dead and +barren moon shows us, as in a magician's glass, the approaching fate of +the earth. Fortunately, human life is a mere span in comparison with the +aeons of cosmic existence, and so we need have no fear that either we or +our descendants for thousands of generations shall have to play the +tragic _role_ of Campbell's "Last Man," and endeavor to keep up a stout +heart amid the crash of time by meanly boasting to the perishing sun, +whose rays have nurtured us, that, though his proud race is ended, we +have confident anticipations of immortality. I trust that, when man +makes his exit from this terrestrial stage, it will not be in the +contemptible act of kicking a fallen benefactor. + +There are several other variable stars in Cetus, but none possessing +much interest for us. The observer should look at the group of stars in +the head, where he will find some interesting combinations, and also at +Chi, which is the little star shown in the map near Zeta ([zeta]). This +is a double that will serve as a very good test of eye and instrument, +the smaller companion-star being of only seven and a half magnitude. + +Directly above Cetus is the long, straggling constellation of Pisces, +the Fishes. The Northern Fish is represented by the group of stars near +Andromeda and the Triangles. A long band or ribbon, supposed to bind the +fish together, trends thence first southeast and then west until it +joins a group of stars under Pegasus, which represents the Western Fish, +not to be confounded with the Southern Fish described near the +beginning of this chapter, which is a separate constellation. Fable has, +however, somewhat confounded these fishes; for while, as I have remarked +above, the Southern Fish is said to represent Venus after she had turned +herself into a fish to escape from the giant Typhon, the two fishes of +the constellation we are now dealing with are also fabled to represent +Venus and her interesting son Cupid under the same disguise assumed on +precisely the same occasion. If Typhon, however, was so great a brute +that even Cupid's arrows were of no avail against him, we should, +perhaps, excuse mythology for duplicating the record of so wondrous an +event. + +You will find it very interesting to take your glass and, beginning with +the attractive little group in the Northern Fish, follow the windings of +the ribbon, with its wealth of tiny stars, to the Western Fish. When you +have arrived at that point, sweep well over the sky in that +neighborhood, and particularly around and under the stars Iota ([iota]), +Theta ([theta]), Lambda ([lambda]), and Kappa ([kappa]). If you are +using a powerful glass, you will be surprised and delighted by what you +see. Below the star Omega ([omega]), and to the left of Lambda, is the +place which the sun occupies at the time of the spring equinox--in other +words, one of the two crossing-places of the equinoctial or the equator +of the heavens, and the ecliptic, or the sun's path. The prime meridian +of the heavens passes through this point. You can trace out this great +circle, from which astronomical longitudes are reckoned, by drawing an +imaginary line from the equinoctial point just indicated through [alpha] +in Andromeda and [beta] in Cassiopeia to the pole-star. + +To the left of Pisces, and above the head of Cetus, is the constellation +Aries, or the Ram. Two pretty bright stars, four degrees apart, one of +which has a fainter star near it, mark it out plainly to the eye. These +stars are in the head of the Ram. The brightest one, Alpha ([alpha]), is +called Hamal; Beta ([beta]) is named Sheratan; and its fainter neighbor +is Mesarthim. According to fable, this constellation represents the ram +that wore the golden fleece, which was the object of the celebrated +expedition of the Argonauts. There is not much in the constellation to +interest us, except its historical importance, as it was more than two +thousand years ago the leading constellation of the zodiac, and still +stands first in the list of the zodiacal signs. Owing to the precession +of the equinoxes, however, the vernal equinoctial point, which was +formerly in this constellation, has now advanced into the constellation +Pisces, as we saw above. Gamma ([gamma]), Arietis, is interesting as the +first telescopic double star ever discovered. Its duplicity was detected +by Dr. Hooke while watching the passage of a comet near the star in +1664. Singularly enough, the brightest star in the constellation, now +bearing the letter [alpha], originally did not belong to the +constellation. Tycho Brahe finally placed it in the head of Aries. + +The little constellation of the Triangles, just above Aries, is worth +only a passing notice. Insignificant as it appears, this little group is +a very ancient constellation. It received its name, Deltoton, from the +Greek letter [Delta]. + +[Illustration: MAP 17.] + +The reader must now be introduced to the "Royal Family." Although the +story of Perseus and Andromeda is, of course, well known to nearly all +readers, yet, on account of the great beauty and brilliancy of the group +of constellations that perpetuate the memory of it among the stars, it +is worth recalling here. It will be remembered that, as Perseus was +returning through the air from his conquest of the Gorgon Medusa, he saw +the beautiful Andromeda chained to a rock on the sea-coast, waiting to +be devoured by a sea-monster. The poor girl's only offense was that her +mother, Cassiopeia, had boasted for her that she was fairer than the +sea-beauty, Atergatis, and for this Neptune had decreed that all the +land of the Ethiopians should be drowned and destroyed unless Andromeda +was delivered up as a sacrifice to the dreadful sea-monster. When +Perseus, dropping down to learn why this maiden was chained to the +rocks, heard from Andromeda's lips the story of her woes, he laughed +with joy. Here was an adventure just to his liking, and besides, unlike +his previous adventures, it involved the fate of a beautiful woman with +whom he was already in love. Could he save her? Well, wouldn't he! The +sea-monster might frighten a kingdom full of Ethiops, but it could not +shake the nerves of a hero from Greece. He whispered words of +encouragement to Andromeda, who could scarce believe the good news that +a champion had come to defend her after all her friends and royal +relations had deserted her. Neither could she feel much confidence in +her young champion's powers when suddenly her horrified gaze met the +awful leviathan of the deep advancing to his feast! But Perseus, with a +warning to Andromeda not to look at what he was about to do, sprang with +his winged sandals up into the air. And then, as Charles Kingsley has so +beautifully told the story-- + +"On came the great sea-monster, coasting along like a huge black galley, +lazily breasting the ripple, and stopping at times by creek or headland +to watch for the laughter of girls at their bleaching, or cattle pawing +on the sand-hills, or boys bathing on the beach. His great sides were +fringed with clustering shells and sea-weeds, and the water gurgled in +and out of his wide jaws as he rolled along, dripping and glistening in +the beams of the morning sun. At last he saw Andromeda, and shot forward +to take his prey, while the waves foamed white behind him, and before +him the fish fled leaping. + +"Then down from the height of the air fell Perseus like a +shooting-star--down to the crest of the waves, while Andromeda hid +her face as he shouted. And then there was silence for a while. + +"At last she looked up trembling, and saw Perseus springing toward her; +and, instead of the monster, a long, black rock, with the sea rippling +quietly round it." + +Perseus had turned the monster into stone by holding the blood-freezing +head of Medusa before his eyes; and it was fear lest Andromeda herself +might see the Gorgon's head, and suffer the fate of all who looked upon +it, that had led him to forbid her watching him when he attacked her +enemy. Afterward he married her, and Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother, and +Cepheus, her father, gave their daughter's rescuer a royal welcome, and +all the Ethiops rose up and blessed him for ridding the land of the +monster. And now, if we choose, we can, any fair night, see the +principal characters of this old romance shining in starry garb in the +sky. Aratus saw them there in his day, more than two hundred years +before Christ, and has left this description in his "Skies," as +translated by Poste: + + "Nor shall blank silence whelm the harassed house + Of Cepheus; the high heavens know their name, + For Zeus is in their line at few removes. + Cepheus himself by She-bear Cynosure, + Iasid king stands with uplifted arms. + From his belt thou castest not a glance + To see the first spire of the mighty Dragon. + + "Eastward from him, heaven-troubled queen, with scanty stars + But lustrous in the full-mooned night, sits Cassiopeia. + Not numerous nor double-rowed + The gems that deck her form, + But like a key which through an inward-fastened + Folding-door men thrust to knock aside the bolts, + They shine in single zigzag row. + She, too, o'er narrow shoulders stretching + Uplifted hands, seems wailing for her child. + + "For there, a woful statue-form, is seen + Andromeda, parted from her mother's side. Long I trow + Thou wilt not seek her in the nightly sky, + So bright her head, so bright + Her shoulders, feet, and girdle. + Yet even there she has her arms extended, + And shackled even in heaven; uplifted, + Outspread eternally are those fair hands. + + "Her feet point to her bridegroom + Perseus, on whose shoulder they rest. + He in the north-wind stands gigantic, + His right hand stretched toward the throne + Where sits the mother of his bride. As one bent on some high deed, + Dust-stained he strides over the floor of heaven." + +The makers of old star-maps seem to have vied in the effort to represent +with effect the figures of Andromeda, Perseus, and Cassiopeia among the +stars, and it must be admitted that some of them succeeded in giving no +small degree of life and spirit to their sketches. + +The starry riches of these constellations are well matched with their +high mythological repute. Lying in and near the Milky-Way, they are +particularly interesting to the observer with an opera-glass. Besides, +they include several of the most celebrated wonders of the firmament. + +In consulting Map No. 17, the observer is supposed to face the east and +northeast. We will begin our survey with Andromeda. The three chief +stars of this constellation are of the second magnitude, and lie in a +long, bending row, beginning with Alpha ([alpha]), or Alpheratz, in the +head, which, as we have seen, marks one corner of the great Square of +Pegasus. Beta ([beta]), or Mirach, with the smaller stars Mu ([mu]) and +Nu ([nu]), form the girdle. The third of the chief stars is Gamma +([gamma]), or Almaach, situated in the left foot. The little group of +stars designated Lambda ([lambda]), Kappa ([kappa]), and Iota ([iota]), +mark the extended right hand chained to the rock, and Zeta ([zeta]) and +some smaller stars southwest of it show the left arm and hand, also +stretched forth and shackled. + +In searching for picturesque objects in Andromeda, begin with Alpheratz +and the groups forming the hands. Below the girdle will be seen a rather +remarkable arrangement of small stars in the mouth of the Northern Fish. +Now follow up the line of the girdle to the star Nu ([nu]). If your +glass has a pretty wide field, your eye will immediately catch the +glimmer of the Great Nebula of Andromeda in the same field with the +star. This is the oldest or earliest discovered of the nebulae, and, with +the exception of that in Orion, is the grandest visible in this +hemisphere. Of course, not much can be expected of an opera-glass in +viewing such an object; and yet a good glass, in clear weather and the +absence of the moon, makes a very attractive spectacle of it. + +[Illustration: THE GREAT ANDROMEDA NEBULA.] + +By turning the eyes aside, the nebula can be seen, extended as a faint, +wispy light, much elongated on either side of the brighter nucleus. The +cut here given shows, approximately, the appearance of the nebula, +together with some of the small stars in its neighborhood, as seen with +a field-glass. With large telescopes it appears both larger and broader, +expanding to a truly enormous extent, and in Bond's celebrated picture +of it we behold gigantic rifts running lengthwise, while the whole field +of sky in which it is contained appears sprinkled over with minute stars +apparently between us and the nebula. It was in, or, probably more +properly speaking, in line with, this nebula that a new star suddenly +shone out in 1885, and, after flickering and fading for a few months, +disappeared. That the outburst of light in this star had any real +connection with the nebula is exceedingly improbable. Although it +appeared to be close beside the bright nucleus of the nebula, it is +likely that it was really hundreds or thousands of millions of miles +either this side or the other side of it. Why it should suddenly have +blazed into visibility, and then in so short a time have disappeared, is +a question as difficult as it is interesting. The easiest way to account +for it, if not the most satisfactory, is to assume that it is a variable +star of long period, and possessing a very wide range of variability. +One significant fact that would seem to point to some connection between +star and the nebula, after all, is that a similar occurrence was noticed +in the constellation Scorpio in 1860, and to which I have previously +referred (see Chapter II). In that case a faint star projected against +the background of a nebula, suddenly flamed into comparatively great +brilliance, and then faded again. The chances against the accidental +superposition of a variable star of such extreme variability upon a +known nebula occurring twice are so great that, for that reason alone, +we might be justified in thinking some mysterious causal relation must +in each case exist between the nebula and the star. The temptation to +indulge in speculation is very great here, but it is better to wait for +more light, and confess that for the present these things are +inexplicable. + +It will be found very interesting to sweep with the glass slowly from +side to side over Andromeda, gradually approaching toward Cassiopeia or +Perseus. The increase in the richness of the stratum of faint stars that +apparently forms the background of the sky will be clearly discernible +as you approach the Milky-Way, which passes directly through Cassiopeia +and Perseus. It may be remarked that the Milky-Way itself, in that +splendidly rich region about Sagittarius (described in the "Stars of +Summer"), is not nearly so effective an object with an opera-glass as it +is above Cygnus and in the region with which we are now dealing. This +seems to be owing to the smaller magnitude of its component stars in the +southern part of the stream. There the background appears more truly +"milky," while in the northern region the little stars shine distinct, +like diamond-specks, on a black background. + +The star Nu, which serves as a pointer to the Great Nebula, is itself +worth some attention with a pretty strong glass on account of a pair of +small stars near it. + +The star Gamma ([gamma]) is interesting, not only as one of the most +beautiful triples in the heavens (an opera-glass is far too feeble an +instrument to reveal its companions), but because it serves to indicate +the radiant point of the Biela meteors. There was once a comet well +known to astronomers by the name of its discoverer, Biela. It repeated +its visits to the neighborhood of the sun once in every six or seven +years. In 1846 this comet astonished all observers by splitting into two +comets, which continued to run side by side, like two equal racers, in +their course around the sun. Each developed a tail of its own. In 1852, +when the twin comets were due again, the astronomical world was on the +_qui vive_, and they did not disappoint expectation, for back they came +out of the depths of space, still racing, but much farther apart than +they had been before, alternating in brightness as if the long struggle +had nearly exhausted them, and finally, like spent runners, growing +faint and disappearing. They have never been seen since. + +In 1872, when the comets should have been visible, if they still +existed, a very startling thing happened. Out of the northern heavens, +along the track of the missing comets, where the earth crossed it, on +the night of the 27th of November came glistening and dashing the fiery +spray of a storm of meteors. It was the dust and fragments of the lost +comet of Biela, which, after being split in two in 1852, had evidently +continued the process of disintegration until its cometary character was +completely lost. It seems to have made a truly ghostly exit, for right +after the meteor swarm of 1872 a mysterious cometary body was seen, +which was supposed at the time to be the missing comet itself, and +which, it is not altogether improbable, may have been a fragment of it. +Three days after the meteors burst over Europe, it occurred to Professor +Klinkerfues, of Berlin, that if they came from Biela's comet the comet +itself ought to be seen in the southern hemisphere retreating from its +encounter with the earth. On November 30th he sent his now historical +telegram to Mr. Pogson, an astronomer at Madras; "Biela touched earth +November 27th. Search near Theta Centauri." For thirty-six hours after +the receipt of this extraordinary request Mr. Pogson was prevented by +clouds from scanning the heavens with his telescope. When the sky +cleared at last, behold there was a comet in the place indicated in the +telegram! It was glimpsed again the next night, and then clouds +intervened, and not a trace of it was ever seen afterward. + +But every year, on the 27th of November, when the earth crosses the +orbit of the lost comet, meteoric fragments come plunging into our +atmosphere, burning as they fly. Ordinarily their number is small, but +when, as in 1872, a swarm of the meteors is in that part of their orbit +which the earth crosses, there is a brilliant spectacle. In 1885 this +occurred, and the world was treated to one of the most splendid meteoric +displays on record. + +[Illustration: THE ATTENDANTS OF ALPHA PERSEI.] + +Next let us turn to Perseus. The bending row of stars marking the center +of this constellation is very striking and brilliant. The brightest star +in the constellation is Alpha, or Algenib, in the center of the row. The +head of Perseus is toward Cassiopeia, and in his left hand he grasps the +head of Medusa, which hangs down in such a way that its principal star +Beta, or Algol, forms a right angle with Algenib and Almaach in +Andromeda. This star Algol, or the Demon, as the Arabs call it, is in +some respects the most wonderful and interesting in all the heavens. It +is as famous for the variability of its light as Mira, but it differs +widely from that star both in its period, which is very short, and in +the extent of the changes it undergoes. During about two days and a +half, Algol is equal in brilliance to Algenib, which is a +second-magnitude star; then it begins to fade, and in the course of +about four and a half hours it sinks to the fourth magnitude, being then +about equal to the faint stars near it. It remains thus obscured for +only a few minutes, and then begins to brighten again, and in about four +and a half hours more resumes its former brilliance. This phenomenon is +very easily observed, for, as will be seen by consulting our little map, +Algol can be readily found, and its changes are so rapid that under +favorable circumstances it can be seen in the course of a single night +to run through the whole gamut. Of course, no optical instrument +whatever is needed to enable one to see these changes of Algol, for it +is plainly visible to the naked eye throughout, but it will be found +interesting to watch the star with an opera-glass. Its periodic time +from minimum to minimum is two days, twenty hours, and forty-nine +minutes, lacking a few seconds. Any one can calculate future minima for +himself by adding the periodic time above given to the time of any +observed minimum. + +While spots upon its surface may be the cause of the variations in the +light of Mira, it is believed that the more rapid changes of Algol may +be due to another cause; namely, the existence of a huge, dark body +revolving swiftly around it at close quarters in an orbit whose plane is +directed edgewise toward the earth, so that at regular intervals this +dark body causes a partial eclipse of Algol. Notwithstanding the attacks +that have been made upon this theory, it seems to hold its ground, and +it will probably continue to find favor as a working hypothesis until +some fresh light is cast upon the problem. It hardly needs to be said +that the dark body in question, if it exists, must be of enormous size, +bearing no such insignificant proportion to the size of Algol as the +earth does to the sun, but being rather the rival in bulk of its shining +brother--a blind companion, an extinguished sun. + +There was certainly great fitness in the selection of the little group +of stars of which this mysterious Algol forms the most conspicuous +member, to represent the awful head of the Gorgon carried by the +victorious Perseus for the confusion of his enemies. In a darker age +than ours the winking of this demon-star must have seemed a prodigy of +sinister import. + +Turn now to the bright star Algenib, or Alpha Persei. You will find with +the glass an exceedingly attractive spectacle there. In my note-book I +find this entry, made while sweeping over Perseus for materials for this +chapter: "The field about Alpha is one of the finest in the sky for an +opera-glass. Stars conspicuously ranged in curving lines and streams. A +host follows Alpha from the east and south." The picture on page 84 will +give the reader some notion of the exceeding beauty of this field of +stars, and of the singular manner in which they are grouped, as it were, +behind their leader. A field-glass increases the beauty of the scene. + +The reader will find a starry cluster marked on Map 17 as the "Great +Cluster." This object can be easily detected by the naked eye, +resembling a wisp of luminous cloud. It marks the hand in which Perseus +clasps his diamond sword, and, with a telescope of medium power, it is +one of the most marvelously beautiful objects in the sky--a double swarm +of stars, bright enough to be clearly distinguished from one another, +and yet so numerous as to dazzle the eye with their lively beams. An +opera-glass does not possess sufficient power to "resolve" this cluster, +but it gives a startling suggestion of its half-hidden magnificence, and +the observer will be likely to turn to it again and again with +increasing admiration. Sweep from this to Alpha Persei and beyond to get +an idea of the procession of suns in the Milky-Way. The nebulous-looking +cluster marked 34 M appears with an opera-glass like a faint comet. + +About a thousand years ago the theologians undertook to reconstruct the +constellation figures, and to give them a religious significance. They +divided the zodiac up among the twelve apostles, St. Peter taking the +place of Aries, with the Triangles for his mitre. In this reconstruction +Perseus was transmogrified into St. Paul, armed with a sword in one hand +and a book in the other; Cassiopeia became Mary Magdalene; while poor +Andromeda, stripped of all her beauty and romance, was turned into a +sepulchre! + +Next look at Cassiopeia, which is distinctly marked out by the zigzag +row of stars so well described by Aratus. Here the Milky-Way is so rich +that the observer hardly needs any guidance; he is sure to stumble upon +interesting sights for himself. The five brightest stars are generally +represented as indicating the outlines of the chair or throne in which +the queen sits, the star Zeta ([zeta]) being in her head. Look at Zeta +with a good field-glass, and you will see a singular and brilliant array +of stars near it in a broken half-circle, which may suggest the notion +of a crown. Near the little star Kappa ([kappa]) in the map will be seen +a small circle and the figures 1572. This shows the spot where the +famous temporary star, which has of late been frequently referred to as +the "Star of Bethlehem," appeared. It was seen in 1572, and carefully +observed by the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe. It seems to have suddenly +burst forth with a brilliance that outshone every other star in the +heavens, not excepting Sirius itself. But its supremacy was short-lived. +In a few months it had sunk to the second magnitude. It continued to +grow fainter, exhibiting some remarkable changes of color in the mean +time, and in less than a year and a half it disappeared. It has never +been seen since. But in 1264, and again in 945, a star is said to have +suddenly blazed out near that point in the heavens. There is no +certainty about these earlier apparitions, but, assuming that they are +not apocryphal, they might possibly indicate that the star seen by Tycho +was a periodical one, its period considerably exceeding three hundred +years. Carrying this supposed period back, it was found that an +apparition of this star might have occurred about the time of the birth +of Christ. It did not require a very prolific imagination to suggest its +identity with the so-called star of the Magi, and hence the legend of +the Star of Bethlehem and its impending reappearance, of which we have +heard so much of late. It will be observed, from the dates given above, +that, even supposing them to be correct, no definite period is indicated +for the reappearance of the star. In one case the interval is three +hundred and eight years, and in the other three hundred and nineteen +years. In short, there are too many suppositions and assumptions +involved to allow of any credence being given to the theory of the +periodicity of Tycho's wonderful star. At the same time, nobody can say +it is impossible that the star should appear again, and so it may be +interesting for the reader to know where to look for it. + +Many of the most beautiful sights of this splendid constellation are +beyond the reach of an opera-glass, and reserved for the grander powers +of the telescope. + +We will pause but briefly with Cepheus, for the old king's constellation +is comparatively dim in the heavens, as his part in the dramatic story +of Andromeda was contemptible, and he seems to have got among the stars +only by virtue of his relationship to more interesting persons. He does +possess one gem of singular beauty--the star Mu, which may be found +about two and a half degrees south of the star Nu ([nu]). It is the +so-called "Garnet Star," thus named by William Herschel, who advises the +observer, in order to appreciate its color, to glance from it to Alpha +Cephei, which is a white star. Mu is variable, changing from the fourth +to the sixth magnitude in a long period of five or six years. Its color +is changeable, like its light. Sometimes it is of a deep garnet hue, and +at other times it is orange-colored. Upon the whole, it appears of a +deeper red than any other star visible to the naked eye. + +If you have a good field-glass, try its powers upon the star Delta +([delta]) Cephei. This is a double star, the components being about +forty-one seconds of arc apart, the larger of four and one half +magnitude, and the smaller of the seventh magnitude. The latter is of a +beautiful blue color, while the larger star is yellow or orange. With a +good eye, a steady hand, and a clear glass, magnifying not less than six +diameters, you can separate them, and catch the contrasted tints of +their light. Besides being a double star, Delta is variable. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE STARS OF WINTER. + + +I have never beheld the first indications of the rising of Orion without +a peculiar feeling of awakened expectation, like that of one who sees +the curtain rise upon a drama of absorbing interest. And certainly the +magnificent company of the winter constellations, of which Orion is the +chief, make their entrance upon the scene in a manner that may be +described as almost dramatic. First in the east come the world-renowned +Pleiades. At about the same time Capella, one of the most beautiful of +stars, is seen flashing above the northeastern horizon. These are the +sparkling ushers to the coming spectacle. In an hour the fiery gleam of +Aldebaran appears at the edge of the dome below the Pleiades, a star +noticeable among a thousand for its color alone, besides being one of +the brightest of the heavenly host. The observer familiar with the +constellations knows, when he sees this red star which marks the eye of +the angry bull, Taurus, that just behind the horizon stands Orion with +starry shield and upraised club to meet the charge of his gigantic +enemy. With Aldebaran rises the beautiful V-shaped group of the Hyades. +Presently the star-streams of Eridanus begin to appear in the east and +southeast, the immediate precursors of the rising of Orion: + + "And now the river-flood's first winding reach + The becalmed mariner may see in heaven, + As he watches for Orion to espy if he hath aught to say + Of the night's measure or the slumbering winds." + +The first glimpse we get of the hero of the sky is the long bending row +of little stars that glitter in the lion's skin which, according to +mythology, serves him for a shield. The great constellation then +advances majestically into sight. First of its principal stars appears +Bellatrix in the left shoulder; then the little group forming the head, +followed closely by the splendid Betelgeuse, "the martial star," +flashing like a decoration upon the hero's right shoulder. Then come +into view the equally beautiful Rigel in the left foot, and the striking +row of three bright stars forming the Belt. Below these hangs another +starry pendant marking the famous sword of Orion, and last of all +appears Saiph in the right knee. There is no other constellation +containing so many bright stars. It has two of the first magnitude, +Betelgeuse and Rigel; the three stars in the Belt, and Bellatrix in the +left shoulder, are all of the second magnitude; and besides these there +are three stars of the third magnitude, more than a dozen of the fourth, +and innumerable twinklers of smaller magnitudes, whose commingled +scintillations form a celestial illumination of singular splendor. + + "Thus graced and armed he leads the starry host." + +By the time Orion has chased the Bull half-way up the eastern slope of +the firmament, the peerless Dog-Star, Sirius, is flaming at the edge of +the horizon, while farther north glitters Procyon, the little Dog-Star, +and still higher are seen the twin stars in Gemini. When these +constellations have advanced well toward the meridian, as shown in our +circular map, their united radiance forms a scene never to be forgotten. +Counting one of the stars in Gemini as of the first rank, there are no +less than seven first-magnitude stars ranged around one another in a way +that can not fail to attract the attention and the admiration of the +most careless observer. Aldebaran, Capella, the Twins, Procyon, Sirius, +and Rigel mark the angles of a huge hexagon, while Betelgeuse shines +with ruddy beauty not far from the center of the figure. The heavens +contain no other naked-eye view comparable with this great array, not +even the glorious celestial region where the Southern Cross shines +supreme, being equal to it in splendor. + +As an offset to the discomforts of winter observations of the stars, the +observer finds that the softer skies of summer have no such marvelous +brilliants to dazzle his eyes as those that illumine the hyemal heavens. +To comprehend the real glories of the celestial sphere in the depth of +winter one should spend a few clear nights in the rural districts of New +York or New England, when the hills, clad with sparkling blankets of +crusted snow, reflect the glitter of the living sky. In the pure frosty +air the stars seem splintered and multiplied indefinitely, and the +brighter ones shine with a splendor of light and color unknown to the +denizen of the smoky city, whose eyes are dulled and blinded by the +glare of streetlights. There one may detect the delicate shade of green +that lurks in the imperial blaze of Sirius, the beautiful rose-red light +of Aldebaran, the rich orange hue of Betelgeuse, the blue-white radiance +of Rigel, and the pearly luster of Capella. If you have never seen the +starry heavens except as they appear from city streets and squares, +then, I had almost said, you have never seen them at all, and especially +in the winter is this true. I wish I could describe to you the +impression that they can make upon the opening mind of a country boy, +who, knowing as yet nothing of the little great world around him, stands +in the yawning silence of night and beholds the illimitably great world +above him, looking deeper than thought can go into the shining vistas of +the universe, and overwhelmed with the wonder of those marshaled suns. + +[Illustration: MAP. 18.] + +Looking now at Map 18, we see the heavens as they appear at midnight on +the 1st of December, at 10 o'clock P. M. on the 1st of January, and at 8 +o'clock P. M. on the 1st of February. In the western half of the sky we +recognize Andromeda, Pegasus, Pisces, Cetus, Aries, Cassiopeia, and +other constellations that we studied in the "Stars of Autumn." Far over +in the east we see rising Leo, Cancer, and Hydra, which we included +among the "Stars of Spring." Occupying most of the southern and eastern +heavens are the constellations which we are now to describe under the +name of the "Stars of Winter," because in that season they are seen +under the most favorable circumstances. I have already referred to the +admirable way in which the principal stars of some of these +constellations are ranged round one another. By the aid of the map the +observer can perceive the relative position of the different +constellations, and, having fixed this in his mind, he will be prepared +to study them in detail. + +[Illustration: MAP 19.] + +Let us now begin with Map No. 19, which shows us the constellations of +Eridanus, Lepus, Orion, and Taurus. Eridanus is a large though not very +conspicuous constellation, which is generally supposed to represent the +celebrated river now known as the Po. It has had different names among +different peoples, but the idea of a river, suggested by its long, +winding streams of stars, has always been preserved. According to fable, +it is the river into which Phaeton fell after his disastrous attempt to +drive the chariot of the sun for his father Phoebus, and in which +hare-brained adventure he narrowly missed burning the world up. The +imaginary river starts from the brilliant star Rigel, in the left foot +of Orion, and flows in a broad upward bend toward the west; then it +turns in a southerly direction until it reaches the bright star Gamma +([gamma]), where it bends sharply to the north, and then quickly sweeps +off to the west once more, until it meets the group of stars marking the +head of Cetus. Thence it runs south, gradually turning eastward, until +it flows back more than half-way to Orion. Finally it curves south again +and disappears beneath the horizon. Throughout the whole distance of +more than 100 deg. the course of the stream is marked by rows of stars, and +can be recognized without difficulty by the amateur observer. + +The first thing to do with your opera-glass, after you have fixed the +general outlines of the constellation in your mind by naked-eye +observations, is to sweep slowly over the whole course of the stream, +beginning at Rigel, and following its various wanderings. Eridanus ends +in the southern hemisphere near a first-magnitude star called Achernar, +which is situated in the stream, but can not be seen from our latitudes. +Along the stream you will find many interesting groupings of the stars. +In the map see the pair of stars below and to the right of Nu ([nu]). +These are the two Omicrons, the upper one being [omicron]¹ and the +lower one [omicron] squared. The latter is of an orange hue, and is remarkable +for the speed with which it is flying through space. There are only one +or two stars whose proper motion, as it is called, is more rapid than +that of [omicron] squared in Eridanus. It changes its place nearly seven +minutes of arc in a century. The records of the earliest observations we +possess show that near the beginning of the Christian era it was about +half-way between [omicron]¹ and [nu]. Its companion [omicron]¹, on the +contrary, seems to be almost stationary, so that [omicron] squared will +gradually draw away from it, passing on toward the southwest until, in +the course of centuries, it will become invisible from our latitudes. +This flying star is accompanied by two minute companions, which in +themselves form a close and very delicate double star. These two little +stars, of only 9.5 and 10.5 magnitude, respectively, are, of course +beyond the ken of the observer with an opera-glass. The system of which +they form a part, however, is intensely interesting, since the +appearances indicate that they belong, in the manner of satellites, to +[omicron] squared, and are fellow-voyagers of that wonderful star. + +[Illustration: THE "GOLDEN HORNS" OF TAURUS.] + +Having admired the star-groups of Eridanus, one of the prettiest of +which is to be seen around Beta ([beta]), let us turn next to Taurus, +just above or north of Eridanus. Two remarkable clusters at once attract +the eye, the Hyades, which are shaped somewhat like the letter [V], with +Aldebaran in the upper end of the left-hand branch, and the Pleiades, +whose silvery glittering has made them celebrated in all ages. The +Pleiades are in the shoulder and the Hyades in the face of Taurus, +Aldebaran most appropriately representing one of his blazing eyes as he +hurls himself against Orion. The constellation-makers did not trouble +themselves to make a complete Bull, and only the head and fore-quarters +of the animal are represented. If Taurus had been completed on the scale +on which he was begun, there would have been no room in the sky for +Aries; one of the Fishes would have had to abandon his celestial +swimming-place, and even the fair Andromeda would have found herself +uncomfortably situated. But, as if to make amends for neglecting to +furnish their heavenly Bull with hind-quarters, the ancients gave him a +most prodigious and beautiful pair of horns, which make the beholder +feel alarm for the safety of Orion. Starting out of the head above the +Hyades, as illustrated in our cut, the horns curve upward and to the +east, each being tipped by a bright star. Along and between the horns +runs a scattered and broken stream of minute stars which seem to be +gathered into knots just beyond the end of the horns, where they dip +into the edge of the Milky-Way. Many of these stars can be seen, on a +dark night, with an ordinary opera-glass, but, to see them well, one +should use as large a field-glass as he can obtain. With such a glass +their appearance almost makes one suspect that Virgil had a poetic +prevision of the wonders yet to be revealed by the telescope when he +wrote, as rendered by Dryden, of the season-- + + "When with his _golden horns_ in full career + The Bull beats down the barriers of the year." + +Below the tips of the horns, and over Orion's head, there are also rich +clusters of stars, as if the Bull were flaunting shreds of sparkling +raiment torn from some celestial victim of his fury. With an ordinary +glass, however, the observer will not find this star-sprinkled region +around the horns of Taurus as brilliant a spectacle as that presented by +the Hyades and the group of stars just above them in the Bull's ear. The +two stars in the tips of the horns are both interesting, each in a +different way. The upper and brighter one of the two, marked Beta +([beta]) in Map No. 19, is called El Nath. It is common to the left horn +of Taurus and the right foot of Auriga, who is represented standing just +above. It is a singularly white star. This quality of its light becomes +conspicuous when it is looked at with a glass. The most inexperienced +observer will hardly fail to be impressed by the pure whiteness of El +Nath, in comparison with which he will find that many of the stars he +had supposed to be white show a decided tinge of color. The star in the +tip of the right or southern horn, Zeta ([zeta]), is remarkable, not on +its own account, but because it serves as a pointer to a famous nebula, +the discovery of which led Messier to form his catalogue of nebulae. This +is sometimes called the "Crab Nebula," from the long sprays of nebulous +matter which were seen surrounding it with Lord Rosse's great telescope. +Our little sketch is simply intended to enable the observer to locate +this strange object. If he wishes to study its appearance, he must use a +powerful telescope. But with a first-rate field-glass he can see it as a +speck of light in the position shown in the cut, where the large star is +Zeta and the smaller ones are faint stars, the relative position of +which will enable the observer to find the nebula, if he keeps in mind +that the top of the cut is toward the north. It is noteworthy that this +nebula for a time deceived several of the watchers who were on the +lookout for the predicted return of Halley's comet in 1835. + +[Illustration: THE CRAB NEBULA.] + +And now let us look at the Hyades, an assemblage of stars not less +beautiful than their more celebrated sisters the Pleiades. The leader of +the Hyades is Aldebaran, or Alpha Tauri, and his followers are worthy of +their leader. The inexperienced observer is certain to be surprised by +the display of stars which an opera-glass brings to view in the Hyades. +Our illustration will give some notion of their appearance with a large +field-glass. The "brackish poet," of whose rhymes Admiral Smyth was so +fond, thus describes the Hyades: + + "In lustrous dignity aloft see Alpha Tauri shine, + The splendid zone he decorates attests the Power divine: + For mark around what glitt'ring orbs attract the wandering eye, + You'll soon confess no other star has such attendants nigh." + +The redness of the light of Aldebaran is a very interesting phenomenon. +Careful observation detects a decided difference between its color and +that of Betelgeuse, or Alpha Orionis, which is also a red star. It +differs, too, from the brilliant red star of summer, Antares. Aldebaran +has a trace of rose-color in its light, while Betelgeuse is of a very +deep orange, and Antares may be described as fire-red. These shades of +color can easily be detected by the naked eye after a little practice. +First compare Aldebaran and Betelgeuse, and glance from each to the +brilliant white, or bluish-white, star Rigel in Orion's foot. Upon +turning the eye back from Rigel to Aldebaran the peculiar color of the +latter is readily perceived. Spectroscopic analysis has revealed the +presence in Aldebaran of hydrogen, sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron, +bismuth, tellurium, antimony, and mercury. And so modern discoveries, +while they have pushed back the stars to distances of which the ancients +could not conceive, have, at the same time, and equally, widened the +recognized boundaries of the physical universe and abolished forever the +ancient distinction between the heavens and the earth. It is a plain +road from the earth to the stars, though mortal feet can not tread it. + +[Illustration: THE HYADES.] + +Keeping in mind that in our little picture of the Hyades the top is +north, the right hand west, and the left hand east, the reader will be +able to identify the principal stars in the group. Aldebaran is readily +recognized, because it is the largest of all. The bright star near the +upper edge of the picture is Epsilon Tauri, and its sister star, forming +the point of the [V], is Gamma Tauri. The three brightest stars between +Epsilon and Gamma, forming a little group, are the Deltas, while the +pair of stars surrounded by many smaller ones, half-way between +Aldebaran and Gamma, are the Thetas. These stars present a very pretty +appearance, viewed with a good glass, the effect being heightened by a +contrast of color in the two Thetas. The little pair southeast of +Aldebaran, called the Sigmas, is also a beautiful object. The distance +apart of these stars is about seven minutes of arc, while the distance +between the two Thetas is about five and a half minutes of arc. These +measures may be useful to the reader in estimating the distances between +other stars that he may observe. It will also be found an interesting +test of the eye-sight to endeavor to see these stars as doubles without +the aid of a glass. Persons having keen eyes will be able to accomplish +this. + +North of the star Epsilon will be seen a little group in the ear of the +Bull (see cut, "The Golden Horns of Taurus"), which presents a brilliant +appearance with a small glass. The southernmost pair in the group are +the Kappas, whose distance apart is very nearly the same as that of the +Thetas, described above; but I think it improbable that anybody could +separate them with the naked eye, as there is a full magnitude between +them in brightness, and the smaller star is only of magnitude 6.5, while +sixth-magnitude stars are generally reckoned as the smallest that can be +seen by the naked eye. Above the Kappas, and in the same group in the +ear, are the two Upsilons, forming a wider pair. + +Next we come to the Pleiades: + + "Though small their size and pale their light, wide is their fame." + +In every age and in every country the Pleiades have been watched, +admired, and wondered at, for they are visible from every inhabited land +on the globe. To many they are popularly known as the Seven Stars, +although few persons can see more than six stars in the group with the +unaided eye. It is a singular fact that many of the earliest writers +declare that only six Pleiades can be seen, although they all assert +that they are seven in number. These seven were the fabled daughters of +Atlas, or the Atlantides, whose names were Merope, Alcyone, Celaeno, +Electra, Taygeta, Asterope, and Maia. One of the stories connected with +them is that Merope married a mortal, whereupon her star grew dim among +her sisters. Another fable assures us that Electra, unable to endure the +sight of the burning of Troy, hid her face in her hands, and so blotted +her star from the sky. While we may smile at these stories, we can not +entirely disregard them, for they are intermingled with some of the +richest literary treasures of the world, and they come to us, like some +old keepsake, perfumed with the memory of a past age. The mythological +history of the Pleiades is intensely interesting, too, because it is +world-wide. They have impressed their mark, in one way or another, upon +the habits, customs, traditions, language, and history of probably every +nation. This is true of savage tribes as well as of great empires. The +Pleiades furnish one of the principal links that appear to connect the +beginnings of human history with that wonderful prehistoric past, where, +as through a gulf of mist, we seem to perceive faintly the glow of a +golden age beyond. The connection of the Pleiades with traditions of the +Flood is most remarkable. In almost every part of the world, and in +various ages, the celebration of a feast or festival of the dead, dimly +connected by traditions with some great calamity to the human race in +the past, has been found to be directly related to the Pleiades. This +festival or rite, which has been discovered in various forms among the +ancient Hindoos, Egyptians, Persians, Peruvians, Mexicans, Druids, etc., +occurs always in the month of November, and is regulated by the +culmination of the Pleiades. The Egyptians directly connected this +celebration with a deluge, and the Mexicans, at the time of the Spanish +conquest, had a tradition that the world had once been destroyed at the +time of the midnight culmination of the Pleiades. Among the savages +inhabiting Australia and the Pacific island groups a similar rite has +been discovered. It has also been suggested that the Japanese feast of +lanterns is not improbably related to this world-wide observance of the +Pleiades, as commemorating some calamitous event in the far past which +involved the whole race of man in its effects. + +The Pleiades also have a supposed connection with that mystery of +mysteries, the great Pyramid of Cheops. It has been found that about the +year 2170 B. C., when the beginning of spring coincided with the +culmination of the Pleiades at midnight, that wonderful group of stars +was visible, just at midnight, through the mysterious southward-pointing +passage of the Pyramid. At the same date the then pole-star, Alpha +Draconis, was visible through the northward-pointing passage of the +Pyramid. + +Another curious myth involving the Pleiades as a part of the +constellation Taurus is that which represents this constellation as the +Bull into which Jupiter changed himself when he carried the fair Europa +away from Phoenicia to the continent that now bears her name. In this +story the fact that only the head and fore-quarters of the Bull are +visible in the sky is accounted for on the ground that the remainder of +his body is beneath the water through which he is swimming. Here, then, +is another apparent link with the legends of the Flood, with which the +Pleiades have been so strangely connected, as by common consent among +many nations, and in the most widely separated parts of the earth. + +With the most powerful field-glass you may be able to see all of the +stars represented in our picture of the Pleiades. With an ordinary +opera-glass the fainter ones will not be visible; yet even with such a +glass the scene is a remarkable one. Not only all of the "Seven +Sisters," but many other stars, can be seen twinkling among them. The +superiority of Alcyone to the others, which is not so clear to the naked +eye, becomes very apparent. Alcyone is the large star below the middle +of the picture with a triangle of little stars beside it. To the left or +east of Alcyone the two most conspicuous stars are Atlas and Pleione. +The latter--which is the uppermost one--is represented too large in the +picture. It requires a sharp eye to see Pleione without a glass, while +Atlas is plainly visible to the unaided vision, and is always counted +among the naked-eye Pleiades, although it does not bear the name of one +of the mythological sisters, but that of their father. The bright star +below and to the right of Alcyone is Merope; the one near the right-hand +edge of the picture, about on a level with Alcyone, is Electra. Above, +or to the north of Electra, are two bright stars lying in a line +pointing toward Alcyone; the upper one of these, or the one farthest +from Alcyone, is Taygeta, and the other is Maia. Above Taygeta and Maia, +and forming a little triangle with them, is a pair of stars which bears +the name of Asterope. About half-way between Taygeta and Electra, and +directly above the latter, is Celaeno. + +[Illustration: THE PLEIADES.] + +The naked-eye observer will probably find it difficult to decide which +he can detect the more easily, Celaeno or Pleione, while he will discover +that Asterope, although composed of two stars, as seen with a glass, is +so faint as to be much more difficult than either Celaeno or Pleione. +Unless, as is not improbable, the names have become interchanged in the +course of centuries, the brightness of these stars would seem to have +undergone remarkable changes. The star of Merope, it will be remembered, +was said to have become indistinct, or disappeared, because she married +a mortal. At present Merope is one of those that can be plainly seen +with the naked-eye, while the star of Asterope, who was said to have had +the god Mars for her spouse, has faded away until only a glass can show +it. It would appear, then, that notwithstanding an occasional temporary +eclipse, it is, in the long run, better to marry a plain mortal than a +god. Electra, too, who hid her eyes at the sight of burning Troy, seems +to have recovered from her fright, and is at present, next to Alcyone, +the brightest star in the cluster. But, however we may regard those +changes in the brightness of the Pleiades which are based upon +tradition, there is no doubt that well-attested changes have taken place +in the comparative brilliancy of stars in this cluster since astronomy +became an exact science. + +Observations of the proper motions of the Pleiades have shown that there +is an actual physical connection between them; that they are, literally +speaking, a flight of suns. Their common motion is toward the southwest, +under the impulse of forces that remain as yet beyond the grasp of human +knowledge. Alcyone was selected by Maedler as the central sun around +which the whole starry system revolved, but later investigations have +shown that his speculation was not well founded, and that, so far as we +can determine, the proper motions of the stars are not such as to +indicate the existence of any common center. They appear to be flying +with different velocities in every direction, although--as in the case +of the Pleiades--we often find groups of them associated together in a +common direction of flight. + +Still another curious fact about the Pleiades is the existence of some +rather mysterious nebulous masses in the cluster. In 1859 Temple +discovered an extensive nebula, of a broad oval form, with the star +Merope immersed in one end of it. Subsequent observations showed that +this strange phenomenon was variable. Sometimes it could not be seen; at +other times it was very plain and large. In Jeaurat's chart of the +Pleiades, made in 1779, a vast nebulous mass is represented near the +stars Atlas and Pleione. This has since been identified by Goldschmidt +as part of a huge, ill-defined nebula, which he thought he could +perceive enveloping the whole group of the Pleiades. Many observers, +however, could never see these nebulous masses, and were inclined to +doubt their actual existence. Within the past few years astronomical +photography, having made astonishing progress, has thrown new light upon +this mysterious subject. The sensitized plate of the camera, when +applied at the focus of a properly constructed telescope, has proved +more effective than the human retina, and has, so to speak, enabled us +to see beyond the reach of vision by means of the pictures it makes of +objects which escape the eye. In November, 1885, Paul and Prosper Henry +turned their great photographing telescope upon the Pleiades, and with +it discovered a nebula apparently attached to the star Maia. The most +powerful telescopes in the world had never revealed this to the eye. Yet +of its actual existence there can be no question. Their photograph also +showed the Merope nebula, although much smaller, and of a different form +from that represented by its discoverer and others. There evidently yet +remains much to be discovered in this singular group, and the mingling +of nebulous matter with its stars makes Tennyson's picturesque +description of the Pleiades appear all the more life-like: + + "Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow shade, + Glitter like _a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid_." + +The reader should not expect to be able to see the nebulae in the +Pleiades with an opera-glass. I have thought it proper to mention these +singular objects only in order that he might be in possession of the +principal and most curious facts about those interesting stars.[C] + +[Footnote C: The Henry Brothers have continued the photographic work +described above, and their later achievements are even more interesting +and wonderful. They have found that there are many nebulous masses +involved in the group of the Pleiades, and have photographed them. One +of the most amazing phenomena in their great photograph of the Pleiades +is a long wisp or streak of nebulous matter, along which eight or nine +stars are strung in a manner which irresistibly suggests an intimate +connection between the stars and the nebula. This recalls the recent +(August, 1888) discovery made by Prof. Holden, with the great Lick +telescope, concerning the structure of the celebrated ring nebula in +Lyra, which, it appears, is composed of concentric ovals of stars and +nebulous stuff, so arranged that we must believe they are intimately +associated in a most wonderful community.] + +Orion will next command our attention. You will find the constellation +in Map No. 19: + + "Eastward beyond the region of the Bull + Stands great Orion; whoso kens not him in cloudless night + Gleaming aloft, shall cast his eyes in vain + To find a brighter sign in all the heaven." + +To the naked eye, to the opera-glass, and to the telescope, Orion is +alike a mine of wonders. This great constellation embraces almost every +variety of interesting phenomena that the heavens contain. Here we have +the grandest of the nebulae, some of the largest and most beautifully +colored stars, star-streams, star-clusters, nebulous stars, variable +stars. I have already mentioned the positions of the principal stars in +the imaginary figure of the great hunter. I may add that his upraised +arm and club are represented by the stars seen in the map above Alpha +([alpha]) or Betelgeuse, one of which is marked Nu ([nu]), and another, +in the knob of the club, Chi ([chi]). I have also, in speaking of +Aldebaran, described the contrast in the colors of Betelgeuse and Beta +([beta]) or Rigel. Betelgeuse, it may be remarked, is slightly variable. +Sometimes it appears brighter than Rigel, and sometimes less brilliant. +It is interesting to note that, according to Secchi's division of the +stars into types, based upon their spectra, Betelgeuse falls into the +third order, which seems to represent a type of suns in which the +process of cooling, and the formation of an absorptive envelope or +shell, have gone on so far that we may regard them as approaching the +point of extinction. Rigel, on the other hand, belongs to the first +order or type which represents suns that are probably both hotter and +younger in the order of development. So, then, we may look upon the two +chief stars of this great constellation as representing two stages of +cosmical existence. Betelgeuse shows us a sun that has almost run its +course, that has passed into its decline, and that already begins to +faint and flicker and grow dim before the on-coming and inevitable fate +of extinction; but in Rigel we see a sun blazing with the fires of +youth, splendid in the first glow of its solar energies, and holding the +promise of the future yet before it. Rigel belongs to a new generation +of the universe; Betelgeuse to the universe that is passing. We may +pursue this comparison one step farther back and see in the great +nebula, which glows dimly in the middle of the constellation, between +Rigel triumphant and Betelgeuse languishing, a still earlier cosmical +condition--the germ of suns whose infant rays may illuminate space when +Rigel itself is growing dim. + +[Illustration: THE SWORD OF ORION AND THE GREAT NEBULA.] + +Turn your glass upon the three stars forming the Belt. You will not be +likely to undertake to count all the twinkling lights that you will see, +especially as many of them appear and disappear as you turn your +attention to different parts of the field. Sweep all around the Belt and +also between the Belt and Gamma ([gamma]) or Bellatrix. According to the +old astrologers, women born under the influence of the star Bellatrix +were lucky, and provided with good tongues. Of course, this was +fortunate for their husbands too! + +Below the Belt will be seen a short row of stars hanging downward and +representing the sword. In the middle of this row is the great Orion +nebula. The star Theta ([theta]) involved in the nebula is multiple, and +the position of this little cluster of suns is such that, as has been +said, they seem to be feeding upon the substance of the nebula +surrounding them. Other stars are seen scattered in different parts of +the nebula. This phenomenon can be plainly seen with an opera-glass. +Our picture of the Sword of Orion shows its appearance with a good +field-glass. With such a glass several fine test-objects will be found +in the Sword. One of the best of these is formed by the two five-pointed +stars seen in the picture close together above the nebula. No difficulty +will be encountered in separating these stars with a field-glass, but it +will require a little sharp watching to detect the small star between +the two and just above the line joining them. So, the bending row of +faint stars above and to the right of the group just described will be +found rather elusive as individuals, though easily glimpsed as a whole. +Of the great nebula itself not much detail can be seen. Yet by averting +the eyes the extension of the nebulous light in every direction from the +center can be detected and traced, under favorable circumstances, to a +considerable distance. The changes that this nebula certainly has +undergone in the brilliancy, if not in the form, of different parts of +it, are perhaps indications of the operation of forces, which we know +must prevail there, and whose tendency can only be in the direction of +condensation, and the ultimate formation of future suns and worlds. Yet, +as the appearance of the nebula in great telescopes shows, we can not +expect that the processes of creation will here produce a homologue of +our solar system. The curdled appearance of the nebula indicates the +formation of various centers of condensation, the final result of which +will doubtless be a group of stars like some of those which we see in +the heavens, and whose common motion shows that they are bound together +in the chains of reciprocal gravitation. The Pleiades are an example of +such a group. + +Do not fail to look for a little star just west of Rigel, which, with a +good opera-glass, appears to be almost hidden in the flashing rays of +its brilliant companion. If you have also a field-glass, after you have +detected this shy little twinkler with your opera-glass, try the larger +glass upon it. You will find then that the little star originally seen +is not the only one there. A still smaller star, which had before been +completely hidden, will now be perceived. I may add that, with +telescopes, Rigel is one of the most beautiful double stars in the sky, +having a little blue companion close under its wing. Run your glass +along the line of little stars forming the lion's skin or shield that +Orion opposes to the onset of Taurus. Here you will find some +interesting combinations, and the star marked on the map [pi]^6 will +especially attract your eye, because it is accompanied, about fifteen +minutes to the northwest, by a seventh-magnitude star of a rich orange +hue. + +Look next at the little group of three stars forming the head of Orion. +Although there is no nebula here, yet these stars, as seen with the +naked eye, have a remarkably nebulous look, and Ptolemy regarded the +group as a nebulous star. The largest star is called Lambda ([lambda]); +the others are Phi ([phi]) one and two. An opera-glass will show another +star above ([lambda]), and a fifth star below [phi]^2 which is the +farthest of the two Phis from Lambda. It will also reveal a faint +twinkling between [lambda] and [phi]^1. A field-glass shows that this +twinkling is produced by a pretty little row of three stars of the +eighth and ninth magnitudes. + +In fact, Orion is such a striking object in the sky that more than one +attempt has been made to steal away its name and substitute that of some +modern hero. The University of Leipsic, in 1807, formally resolved that +the stars forming the Belt and Sword of Orion should henceforth be known +as the constellation of Napoleon. As if to offset this, an Englishman +proposed to rename Orion for the British naval bull-dog Nelson. But +"Orion armed" has successfully maintained his name and place against all +comers. As becomes the splendor of his constellation, Orion is a +tremendous hero of antiquity, although it must be confessed that his +history is somewhat shadowy and uncertain, even for a mythological +story. All accounts agree, however, that he was the mightiest hunter +ever known, and the Hebrews claimed that he was no less a person than +Nimrod himself. + +[Illustration: MAP 20.] + +The little constellations of Lepus and Columba, below Orion, need not +detain us long. You will find in them some pretty combinations of stars. +In Lepus is the celebrated "Crimson Star," which has been described as +resembling a drop of blood in color--a truly marvelous hue for a +sun--but, as it is never brighter than the sixth magnitude, and from +that varies down to the ninth, we could hardly hope to see its color +well with an opera-glass. Besides, the observer would have difficulty in +finding it. + +We will now turn to the constellation of Canis Major, represented in Map +No. 20. Although, as a constellation, it is not to be compared with the +brilliant Orion, yet, on account of the unrivaled magnificence of its +chief star, Canis Major presents almost as attractive a scene as its +more extensive rival. Everybody has heard of Sirius, or the Dog-Star, +and everybody must have seen it flashing and scintillating so splendidly +in the winter heavens, that to call it a first-magnitude star does it +injustice, since no other star of that magnitude is at all comparable +with it. Sirius, in fact, stands in a class by itself as the brightest +star in the sky. Its light is white, with a shade of green, which +requires close watching to be detected. When it is near the horizon, or +when the atmosphere is very unsteady, Sirius flashes prismatic colors +like a great diamond. The question has been much discussed, as to +whether Sirius was formerly a red star. It is described as red by +several ancient authors, but it seems to be pretty well established that +these descriptions are most of them due to a blunder made by Cicero in +his translation of the astronomical poem of Aratus. It is not +impossible, though it is highly improbable, that Sirius has changed +color. + +So intimately was Sirius connected in the minds of the ancient Egyptians +with the annual rising of the Nile, that it was called the Nile-star. +When it appeared in the morning sky, just before sunrise, the season of +the overflowing of the great river was about to begin, and so the +appearance of this star was regarded as foretelling the coming of the +floods. The dog-days got their name from Sirius, as they occur at the +time when that star rises with the sun. + +Your eyes will be fairly dazzled when you turn your glass upon this +splendid star. By close attention you will be able to perceive a number +of faint stars, mere points by comparison, in the immediate neighborhood +of Sirius. There are many interesting objects in the constellation. The +star marked Nu ([nu]) in the map is really triple, as the smallest glass +will show. Look next at the star-group 41 M. The cloud of minute stars +of which it is composed can be very well seen with a field-glass or a +powerful opera-glass. The star 22 is of a very ruddy color that +contrasts beautifully with the light of Epsilon ([epsilon]), which can +be seen in the same field of view with an opera-glass. Between the stars +Delta ([delta]) and [omicron]¹ and [omicron] squared there is a remarkable +array of minute stars, as shown in the accompanying cut. One never sees +stars arranged in streams or rows, like these, without an irresistible +impression that the arrangement can not be accidental; that some law +must have been in operation which associated them together in the forms +which we see. Yet, when we reflect that these are all suns, how far do +we seem to be from understanding the meaning of the universe! + +[Illustration: DELTA CANIS MAJORIS AND ITS NEIGHBORS.] + +The extraordinary size and brilliancy of Sirius might naturally enough +lead one to suppose that it is the nearest of the stars, and such it was +once believed to be. Observations of stellar parallax, however, show +that this was a mistake. The distance of Sirius is so great that no +satisfactory determination of it has yet been made. We may safely say, +though, that that distance is, at the least calculation, +50,000,000,000,000 miles. In other words, Sirius is about 537,000 times +as far from the earth as the sun is. Then, since light diminishes as +the square of the distance increases, the sun, if placed as far from us +as Sirius is, would send us, in round numbers, 288,000,000,000 times +less light than we now receive from it. But Sirius actually sends us +only about 4,000,000,000 times less light than the sun does; +consequently Sirius must shine 288,000,000,000/4,000,000,000 = 72 +times as brilliantly as the sun. If we adopt Wollaston's estimate +of the light of Sirius, as compared with that of the sun, viz., +1/20,000,000,000, we shall still find that the actual brilliancy of +that grand star is more than fourteen times as great as that of our sun. +But as observations on the companion of Sirius show that Sirius's mass +is fully twenty times the sun's, and since the character of Sirius's +spectrum indicates that its intrinsic brightness, surface for surface, +is much superior to the sun's, it is probable that our estimate of the +star's actual brilliancy, as compared with what the sun would possess at +the same distance, viz., seventy-two times, is much nearer the truth. It +is evident that life would be insupportable upon the earth if it were +placed as near to Sirius as it is to the sun. If the earth were a planet +belonging to the system of Sirius, in order to enjoy the same amount of +heat and light it now receives, it would have to be removed to a +distance of nearly 800,000,000 miles, or eight and a half times its +distance from the sun. Its time of revolution around Sirius would then +be nearly five and a half years, or, in other words, the year would be +lengthened five and a half times. + +But, as I have said, the estimate of Sirius's distance used in these +calculations is the smallest that can be accepted. Good authorities +regard the distance as being not less than 100,000,000,000,000 miles; in +which case the star's brilliancy must be as much as 228 times greater +than that of the sun! And yet even Sirius is probably not the greatest +sun belonging to the visible universe. There can be little doubt that +Canopus, in the southern hemisphere, is a grander sun than Sirius. To +our eyes, Canopus is only about half as bright as Sirius, and it ranks +as the second star in the heavens in the order of brightness. But while +Sirius's distance is measurable, that of Canopus is so unthinkably +immense that astronomers can get no grip upon it. If it were only twice +as remote as Sirius, it would be equal to two of the latter, but in all +probability its distance is much greater than that. And possibly even +Canopus is not the greatest gem in the coronet of creation. + +Sirius, as we saw when talking of Procyon (see Chapter I), is a double +star. For many years after Bessel had declared his belief that the +Dog-Star was subjected to the attraction of an invisible companion, +telescopes failed to reveal the accompanying star.[D] Finally, in 1862, +a new telescope that Alvan Clark had just finished and was testing, +brought the hidden star into view. The suggestion that it may shine by +reflected light from Sirius has been made. In that case it must, of +course, be a planet, but a planet of such stupendous magnitude that the +imagination can scarcely grasp it; a planet probably as large as our +sun, perhaps larger; a planet equal in size to more than a million +earths! But, as was remarked of the faint stars in Alpha Capricornis, it +is probable that the hypothesis of reflected light is not the true one. +More probably the companion of Sirius shines with light of its own, +though its excessive faintness in comparison with its bulk indicates +that its condition must be very different from that of an ordinary star. + + [D] The following extract from a letter by Bessel to Humboldt, + written in 1844 (see "Cosmos," vol. iii, p. 186), is + interesting, in view of the discoveries made since then: + "At all events I continue in the belief that Procyon and + Sirius are true double stars, consisting of a visible and + an invisible star. No reason exists for considering + luminosity an essential property of these bodies. The + fact that numberless stars are visible is evidently no + proof against the existence of an equally incalculable + number of invisible ones. The physical difficulty of a + change in the proper motion is satisfactorily set aside + by the hypothesis of dark stars." + +Readers of Voltaire will remember that the hero of his extraordinary +story of "Micromegas" came from an imaginary planet circling around +Sirius. Inasmuch as Voltaire, together with Dean Swift, ascribed two +moons to Mars many years before they were discovered (probably suggested +by a curiously mistaken interpretation by Kepler of an anagram in which +Galileo had concealed his discovery of the ring of Saturn), it is all +the more interesting that the great infidel should have imagined an +enormous planet circling around the Dog-Star. But Voltaire went far +astray when he ascribed a gigantic stature to his "Sirian." He makes +Micromegas, whose world was 21,600,000 times larger in circumference +than the earth, more than twenty miles tall, so that when he visited our +little planet he was able to wade through the oceans and step over the +mountains without inconvenience, and, when he had scooped up some of the +inhabitants on his thumb-nail, was obliged to use a powerful microscope +in order to see them. Voltaire should rather have gone to some of the +most minute of the asteroids for his giant, for under the tremendous +gravitation of such a world as he has described Micromegas himself would +have been a fit subject for microscopic examination. But, however much +we may doubt the stature of Voltaire's visitor from Sirius, we can not +doubt the soundness of the conclusion at which he arrived, after having, +by an ingenious arrangement, succeeded in holding a conversation with +some earthly philosophers under his microscope, namely, that these +infinitely little creatures possessed a pride that was almost infinitely +great. + +East and south of Canis Major, which, by-the-way, is said to represent +one of Orion's hounds, is part of the constellation Argo, which stands +for the ship in which Jason sailed in search of the golden fleece. The +observer will find many objects of interest here, although some of them +are so close to the horizon in our latitudes that much of their +brilliancy is lost. Note the two stars [zeta] and [pi] near the lower +edge of the map, then sweep slowly over the space lying between them. +About half-way your attention will be arrested by a remarkable stellar +arrangement, in which a beautiful half-circle of small stars curving +above a larger star, which is reddish in color, is conspicuous. This +neighborhood will be found rich in stars that the naked eye can not see. +Just below the star [eta], in Canis Major, is another fine group. The +star [pi], which is deep yellow or orange, has three little stars above +it, two of which form a pretty pair. The star [xi] has a companion, +which forms a fine test for an opera-glass, and is well worth looking +for. Look also at the cluster 93 M, just above and to the west of [xi]. +The stars [mu] and [kappa] are seen double with an opera-glass. + +The two neighboring clusters, 46 M and 38^8, are very interesting +objects. To see them well, use a powerful field-glass. A "fiery +fifth-magnitude star," as Webb calls it, can be seen in the field at the +same time. The presence of the Milky-Way is manifest by the sprinkling +of stars all about this region. In fact, the attentive observer will +before this have noticed that the majority of the most brilliant +constellations lie either in the Milky-Way or along its borders. +Cassiopeia, as we saw, sits athwart the galaxy whose silvery current +winds in and out among the stars of her "chair"; Perseus is aglow with +its sheen as it wraps him about like a mantle of stars; Taurus has the +tips of his horns dipped in the great stream; it flows between the +shining feet of Gemini and the head and shoulders of Orion as between +starry banks; the peerless Sirius hangs like a gem pendent from the +celestial girdle. In the southern hemisphere we should find the +beautiful constellation of the ship Argo, containing Canopus, sailing +along the Milky-Way, blown by the breath of old romance on an endless +voyage; the Southern Cross glitters in the very center of the galaxy; +and the bright stars of the Centaur might be likened to the heads of +golden nails pinning this wondrous scarf, woven of the beams of millions +of tiny stars, against the dome of the sky. Passing back into the +northern hemisphere we find Scorpio, Sagittarius, Aquila, the Dolphin, +Cygnus, and resplendent Lyra, all strung along the course of the +Milky-Way. + +Turning now to the constellation Monoceros, we shall find a few objects +worthy of attention. This constellation is of comparatively modern +origin, having been formed by Bartschius, whose chief title to +distinction is that he married the daughter of John Kepler. The region +around the stars 8, 13, and 17 will be found particularly rich, and the +cluster 2^7 shows well with a strong glass. Look also at the cluster 50 +M, and compare its appearance with that of the clusters in Argo. + +With these constellations we finish our review of the stellar wonders +that lie within the reach of so humble an instrument as an opera-or +field-glass. We have made the circuit of the sky, and the hosts that +illumine the vernal heavens are now seen advancing from the east, and +pressing close upon the brighter squadrons of winter. Their familiar +figures resemble the faces of old friends whom we are glad to welcome. +These starry acquaintances never grow wearisome. Their interest for us +is as fathomless as the deeps of space in which they shine. The man +never yet lived whose mind could comprehend the full meaning of the +wondrous messages that they flash to us upon the wings of light. As we +watch them in their courses, the true music of the spheres comes to our +listening ears, the chorus of creation--faint with distance, for it is +by slow approaches that man draws near to it--chanting the grandest of +epics, the Poem of the Universe; and the theme that runs through it all +is the reign of law. Do not be afraid to become a star-gazer. The human +mind can find no higher exercise. He who studies the stars will +discover-- + + "An endless fountain of immortal drink + Pouring unto us from heaven's brink." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE MOON, THE PLANETS, AND THE SUN. + + +"It is a most beautiful and delightful sight," exclaims Galileo, in +describing the discoveries he had made with his telescope, "to behold +the body of the moon, which is distant from us nearly sixty +semi-diameters of the earth, as near as if it was at a distance of only +two of the same measures.... And, consequently, any one may know with +the certainty that is due to the use of our senses that the moon +assuredly does not possess a smooth and polished surface, but one rough +and uneven, and, just like the face of the earth itself, is everywhere +full of vast protuberances, deep chasms, and sinuosities." + +There was, perhaps, nothing in the long series of discoveries with which +Galileo astonished the world after he had constructed his telescope, +which, as he expresses it, "was devised by me through God's grace first +enlightening my mind," that had a greater charm for him than his lunar +observations. Certainly there was nothing which he has described with +greater enthusiasm and eloquence. And this could hardly have been +otherwise, for the moon was the first celestial object to which Galileo +turned his telescope, and then for the first time human eyes may be said +to have actually looked into another world than the earth, though his +discoveries and those of his successors have not realized all the poetic +fancies about the moon contained in the verses that are ascribed to +Orpheus: + + "And he another wandering world has made + Which gods Selene name, and men the moon. + It mountains, cities has, and temples grand." + +Yet Galileo's observations at once upset the theory, for which +Apollonius was responsible, and which seems to have been widely +prevalent up to his time, that the moon was a smooth body, polished like +a mirror, and presenting in its light and dark spots reflections of the +continents and oceans of the earth. He also demonstrated that its +surface was covered with plains and mountains, but the "cities and +temples" of the moon have remained to our time only within the ken of +romance. + +Galileo's telescope, as I have before remarked, was, in the principle of +its construction, simply an opera-glass of one tube. He succeeded in +making a glass of this kind that magnified thirty diameters, a very much +higher power than is given to the opera-and field-glasses of to-day. Yet +he had to contend with the disadvantages of single lenses, achromatic +combinations of glass for optical purposes not being contrived until +nearly a hundred years after his death, and so his telescope did not +possess quite as decided a superiority over a modern field-glass as the +difference in magnifying power would imply. In fact, if the reader will +view the moon with a first-rate field-glass, he will perceive that the +true nature of the surface of the lunar globe can be readily discerned +with such an instrument. Even a small opera-glass will reveal much to +the attentive observer of the moon; but for these observations the +reader should, if possible, make use of a field-glass, and the higher +its power the better. The illustrations accompanying this chapter were +made by the author with the aid of a glass magnifying seven diameters. + +Of course, the first thing the observer will wish to see will be the +mountains of the moon, for everybody has heard of them, and the most +sluggish imagination is stirred by the thought that one can look off +into the sky and behold "the eternal hills" of another planet as solid +and substantial as our own. But the chances are that, if left to their +own guidance, ninety-nine persons out of a hundred would choose exactly +the wrong time to see these mountains. At any rate, that is my +experience with people who have come to look at the moon through my +telescope. Unless warned beforehand, they invariably wait until full +moon, when the flood of sunshine poured perpendicularly upon the face of +our satellite conceals its rugged features as effectually as if a veil +had been drawn over them. Begin your observations with the appearance of +the narrowest crescent of the new moon, and follow it as it gradually +fills, and then you will see how beautifully the advancing line of lunar +sunrise reveals the mountains, over whose slopes and peaks it is +climbing, by its ragged and sinuous outline. The observer must keep in +mind the fact that he is looking straight down upon the tops of the +lunar mountains. It is like a view from a balloon, only at a vastly +greater height than any balloon has ever attained. Even with a powerful +telescope the observer sees the moon at an apparent distance of several +hundred miles, while with a field-glass, magnifying seven diameters, the +moon appears as if thirty-five thousand miles off. The apparent distance +with Galileo's telescope was eight thousand miles. Recollect how when +seen from a great height the rugosities of the earth's surface flatten +out and disappear, and then try to imagine how the highest mountains on +the earth would look if you were suspended thirty-five thousand miles +above them, and you will, perhaps, rather wonder at the fact that the +moon's mountains can be seen at all. + +It is the contrast of lights and shadows that not only reveals them to +us, but enables us to measure their height. On the moon shadows are very +much darker than upon the earth, because of the extreme rarity of the +moon's atmosphere, if indeed it has any atmosphere at all. By stepping +around the corner of a rock there, one might pass abruptly from +dazzling noonday into the blackness of midnight. The surface of the moon +is extraordinarily rough and uneven. It possesses broad plains, which +are probably the bottoms of ancient seas that have now dried up, but +these cover only about two fifths of the surface visible to us, and most +of the remaining three fifths are exceedingly rugged and mountainous. +Many of the mountains of the moon are, foot for foot, as lofty as the +highest mountains on the earth, while all of them, in proportion to the +size of the moon's globe, are much larger than the earth's mountains. It +is obvious, then, that the sunshine, as it creeps over these Alpine +landscapes in the moon, casting the black shadows of the peaks and +craters many miles across the plains, and capping the summits of lofty +mountains with light, while the lower regions far around them are yet +buried in night, must clearly reveal the character of the lunar surface. +Mountains that can not be seen at all when the light falls +perpendicularly upon them, or, at the most, appear then merely as +shining points, picture themselves by their shadows in startling +silhouettes when illuminated laterally by the rising sun. + +But at full moon, while the mountains hide themselves in light, the old +sea-beds are seen spread out among the shining table-lands with great +distinctness. Even the naked eye readily detects these as ill-defined, +dark patches upon the face of the moon, and to their presence are due +the popular notions that have prevailed in all quarters of the world +about the "Man in the Moon," the "Woman in the Moon," "Jacob in the +Moon," the "Hare in the Moon," the "Toad in the Moon," and so on. But, +however clearly one may imagine that he discerns a man in the moon while +recalling the nursery-rhymes about him, an opera-glass instantly puts +the specter to flight, and shows the round lunar disk diversified and +shaded like a map.[E] + + [E] I should, perhaps, qualify the statement in the text + slightly in favor of a lunar lady to whom Mr. Henry M. + Parkhurst first called my attention. About nine days + after new moon a rather pretty and decidedly feminine + face appears on the western half of the disk. It is + formed by the mountains and table-lands embraced by + the Sea of Serenity, the Sea of Tranquillity, the + Sea of Vapors, etc., and is best seen with the aid + of an opera-glass of low power. The face is readily + distinguishable on Rutherfurd's celebrated photograph + of the full moon. It is necessary for this purpose + to turn the photograph upside down, since it is a + telescopic picture, and consequently reversed. The + crater Tycho forms a breastpin for the lady, and + Menelaus glitters like a diamond ornament in her hair, + while the range of the Apennines resembles a sort of + coronet resting on her forehead. This same woman in + the moon, it appears, was described by Dr. James + Thompson years ago, and, for aught I know, she may be + the Diana to whom Herrick sang: + + "Queen and huntress chaste and fair, + Seated in thy silver chair, + Now the Sun is laid to sleep, + State in wonted manner keep. + Hesperus entreats thy light, + Goddess excellently bright." + +A feature of the full moon's surface that instantly attracts attention +is the remarkable brightness of the southern part of the disk, and the +brilliant streaks radiating from a bright point near the lower edge. The +same simile almost invariably comes to the lips of every person who sees +this phenomenon for the first time--"It looks like a peeled orange." The +bright point, which is the great crater-mountain Tycho, looks exactly +like the pip of the orange, and the light-streaks radiating from it in +all directions bear an equally striking resemblance to the streaks that +one sees upon an orange after the outer rind has been removed. I shall +have something more to say about these curious streaks further on; in +the mean time, let us glance at our little sketch-map of the moon. + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE MOON.] + +The so-called seas are marked on the map, for the purpose of reference, +by the letters which they ordinarily bear in lunar maps. The numerals +indicate craters, or ring-plains, and mountain-ranges. The following +key-list will enable the reader to identify all the objects that are +lettered or numbered upon the map. I have given English translations of +the Latin names which the old astronomers bestowed upon the seas: + +_Seas, Gulfs, and Marshes._ + + A. The Crisian Sea. + B. Humboldt Sea. + C. The Sea of Cold. + D. The Lake of Death. + E. The Lake of Dreams. + F. The Marsh of Sleep. + G. The Sea of Tranquillity. + H. The Sea of Serenity. + I. The Marsh of Mists. + K. The Marsh of Putrefaction. + L. The Sea of Vapors. + M. The Central Gulf. + N. The Gulf of Heats. + O. The Sea of Showers. + P. The Bay of Rainbows. + Q. The Ocean of Storms. + R. The Bay of Dew. + S. The Sea of Clouds. + T. The Sea of Humors. + V. The Sea of Nectar. + X. The Sea of Fertility. + Z. The South Sea. + +_Mountains and Crater Rings._ + + 1. Grimaldi. + 2. Letronne. + 3. Gassendi. + 4. Euclides. + 5. Bullialdus. + 6. Pitatus. + 7. Schickhard. + 8. Longomontanus. + 9. Tycho. + 10. Maginus. + 11. Clavius. + 12. Newton. + 13. Maurolycus. + 14. Stoefler. + 15. Walter. + 16. Regiomontanus. + 17. Purbach. + 18. Arzachel. + 19. Alphonsus. + 20. Ptolemaus. + 21. Hipparchus. + 22. Albategnius. + 23. Theophilus. + 24. Cyrillus. + 25. Catharina. + 26. The Altai Mts. + 27. Piccolomini. + 28. Petavius. + 29. Langrenus. + 80. Proclus. + 31. Cleomedes. + 32. Atlas. + 33. Hercules. + 34. Posidonius. + 35. Plinius. + 36. Menelaus. + 37. Manilius. + 38. The Caucasus Mts. + 39. Eudoxus. + 40. Aristotle. + 41. The Alps. + 42. Plato. + 43. Archimedes. + 44. The Apennines. + 45. Eratosthenes. + 46. Copernicus. + 47. The Carpathian Mts. + 48. Timocharis. + 49. Lambert. + 50. Euler. + 51. Aristarchus. + 52. Kepler. + 53. Flamsteed. + +The early selenographers certainly must have been men of vivid +imagination, and the romantic names they gave to the lunar landscapes, +and particularly to the "seas," add a charm of their own to the study of +the moon. Who would not wish to see the "Bay of Rainbows," or the "Lake +of Dreams," or the "Sea of Tranquillity," if for no other reason than a +curiosity to know what could have induced men to give to these regions +in the moon such captivating titles? Or who would not desire to visit +them if he could? though no doubt we should find them, like the +"Delectable Mountains" in the "Pilgrim's Progress," most charming when +seen from afar. + +The limited scale of our map, of course, renders it impossible to +represent upon it more than a comparatively small number of the lunar +mountains that have received names. In selecting those to be put in the +map I have endeavored to choose such as, on account of their size, their +situation, or some striking peculiarity, would be most likely to attract +the attention of a novice. The observer must not expect to see them all +at once, however. The lunar features change their appearance to a +surprising extent, in accordance with the direction of their +illumination. Some great mountain-masses and ring-plains, or craters, +which present scenes of magnificence when the sun is rising or setting +upon them, disappear under a perpendicular light, such as they receive +at full moon. The great crater-plain, known as Maginus, numbered 10 in +our map, is one of these. The broken mountain-wall surrounding this vast +depressed plain rises in some places to a height of over fourteen +thousand feet above the valley within, and the spectacle of sunrise upon +Maginus, seen with a powerful telescope, is a most impressive sight, and +even with a field-glass is very interesting. Yet, a few days later, +Maginus vanishes, as if it had been swallowed up, and as Beer and Maedler +have expressed it, "the full moon knows no Maginus." The still grander +formation of mountain, plain, and crater, called Clavius (11 in the +map), disappears almost as completely as Maginus at full moon, yet, +under the proper illumination, it presents a splendid pageant of light +and shadow. + +On the other hand, some of the lunar mountains shine vividly at full +moon, and can be well seen then, though, of course, only as light spots, +since at that time they cast no shadows. Menelaus (36 in the map), +Aristarchus (51), Proclus (30), Copernicus (46), and Kepler (52), are +among these shining mountains. Aristarchus is the most celebrated of +them all, being the brightest point on the moon. It can even be seen +glimmering on the dark side of the moon--that is to say, when no light +reaches it except that which is reflected from the earth. With a large +telescope, Aristarchus is so dazzlingly bright under a high sun, that +the eye is partly blinded in gazing at it. It consists of a +mountain-ring surrounding a circular valley, about twenty-eight miles in +diameter. The flanks of these mountains, especially on their inner +slopes, and the floor of the valley within, are very bright, while a +peak in the center of the valley, about as high as Storm-King Mountain +on the Hudson, shines with piercing brilliancy. Sir William Herschel +mistook it for a volcano in action. It certainly is not an active +volcano, but just what makes it so dazzling no one knows. The material +of which this mountain is formed would seem to possess a higher +reflective power than that of any other portion of the moon's surface. +One is irresistibly reminded of the crystallized mountains described in +the celebrated "Moon Hoax" of Richard Adams Locke. With an opera-glass +you can readily recognize Aristarchus as a bright point at full moon. +With a field-glass it is better seen, and some of the short, light rays +surrounding it are perceived, while, when the sun is rising upon it, +about four days after first quarter, its crateriform shape can be +detected with such a glass. + +The visibility of Aristarchus on the dark side of the moon leads us to a +brief consideration of the illumination by the earth of that portion of +the moon's surface which is not touched directly by sunlight at new and +old moon. This phenomenon is shown in the accompanying illustration. Not +only can the outlines of the dark part of the moon be seen under such +circumstances, but even the distinction in color between the dusky +"seas" and the more brilliant table-lands and mountain-regions can be +perceived, and with powerful telescopes many minor features come into +sight. A little consideration must convince any one, as it convinced +Galileo more than two hundred and seventy-five years ago, that the light +reflected from the earth upon the moon is sufficient to produce this +faint illumination of the lunar landscapes. We have only to recall the +splendors of a night that is lighted by a full moon, and then to +recollect that at new or old moon the earth is "full" as seen from our +satellite, and that a full earth must give some fourteen times as much +light as a full moon, in order to realize the brilliancy of an earth-lit +night upon the moon. As the moon waxes to us, the earth wanes to the +moon, and _vice versa_, and so the phenomenon of earth-shine on the +lunar surface must be looked for before the first quarter and after the +last quarter of the moon. + +[Illustration: SUNRISE ON THE SEA OF SERENITY, AND THEOPHILUS AND OTHER +CRATERS.] + +The reader will find it an attractive occupation to identify, by means +of the map, the various "seas," "lakes," and "marshes," for not only +are they interesting on account of the singularity of their names, but +they present many remarkable differences of appearance, which may be +perceived with the instrument he is supposed to be using. The oval form +of the Crisian Sea (A), which is the first of the "seas" to come into +sight at new moon, makes it a very striking object. With good +telescopes, and under favorable illumination, a decidedly green tint is +perceived in the Crisian Sea. It measures about two hundred and eighty +by three hundred and fifty-five miles in extent, and is, perhaps, the +deepest of all the old sea-beds visible on the moon. It is surrounded by +mountains, which can be readily seen when the sun strikes athwart them a +few days after new or full moon. On the southwestern border a stupendous +mountain-promontory, called Cape Agarum, projects into the Crisian Sea +fifty or sixty miles, the highest part rising precipitously eleven +thousand feet above the floor of the sea. I have seen Cape Agarum very +clearly defined with a field-glass. Near the eastern border is the +crater-mountain Proclus, which I have already mentioned as possessing +great brilliancy under a high sun, being in this respect second only to +Aristarchus. + +From the foot of Proclus spreads away the somewhat triangular region +called the Marsh of Sleep (F). The term "golden-brown," which has been +applied to it, perhaps describes its hue well enough. With a telescope +it is a most interesting region, but with less powerful instruments one +must be content with recognizing its outline and color. + +The broad, dark-gray expanse of the Sea of Tranquillity (G) will be +readily recognized by the observer, and he will be interested in the +mottled aspect which it presents in certain regions, caused by ridges +and elevations, which, when this sea-bottom was covered with water, may +have formed shoals and islands. + +The Sea of Fertility (X) is remarkable for its irregular surface, and +the long, crooked bays into which its southern extremity is divided. + +The Sea of Nectar (V) is connected with the Sea of Tranquillity by a +broad strait (one would naturally anticipate from their names that there +must be some connection between them), while between it and the Sea of +Fertility runs the range of the Pyrenees Mountains, twelve thousand feet +high, flanked by many huge volcanic mountain-rings. + +The Sea of Serenity (H), lying northeast of the Sea of Tranquillity, is +about four hundred and twenty miles broad by four hundred and thirty +miles long, being very nearly of the same area as our Caspian Sea. It is +deeper than the Sea of Tranquillity, and a greenish hue is sometimes +detected in its central parts. It deepens toward the middle. Three +quarters of its shore-line are bordered by high mountains, and many +isolated elevations and peaks are scattered over its surface. In looking +at these dried-up seas of the moon, one is forcibly reminded of the +undulating and in some places mountainous character of terrestrial +sea-bottoms, as shown by soundings and the existence of small islands in +the deep sea, like the Bermudas, the Azores and St. Helena. The Sea of +Serenity is divided nearly through the center by a narrow, bright +streak, apparently starting from the crater-mountain Menelaus (36 in the +map), but really taking its rise at Tycho far in the south. This curious +streak can be readily detected even with a small opera-glass. Just what +it is no one is prepared to say, and so the author of the "Moon Hoax" +was fairly entitled to take advantage of the romancer's license, and +declare that "its edge throughout its whole length of three hundred and +forty miles is an acute angle of solid quartz-crystal, brilliant as a +piece of Derbyshire spar just brought from the mine, and containing +scarcely a fracture or a chasm from end to end!" Along the southern +shore, on either side of Menelaus, extends the high range of the Haemus +Mountains. South and southeast of the Sea of Serenity are the Sea of +Vapors (L), the Central Gulf (M), and the Gulf of Heats (N). The +observer will notice at full moon three or four curious dark spots in +the region occupied by these flat expanses. On the north and northwest +of the Sea of Serenity are the Lake of Death (D), and the Lake of Dreams +(E), chiefly remarkable for their names. + +The Sea of Showers (O) is a very interesting region, not only in itself, +but on account of its surroundings. Its level is very much broken by +low, winding ridges, and it is variegated by numerous light-streaks. At +its western end it blends into the Marsh of Mists (I) and the Marsh of +Putrefaction (K). On its northeast border is the celebrated Sinus +Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows (P), upon which selenographers have exhausted +the adjectives of admiration. The bay is semicircular in form, one +hundred and thirty-five miles long and eighty-four miles broad. Its +surface is dark and level. At either end a splendid cape extends into +the Sea of Showers, the eastern one being called Cape Heraclides, and +the western Cape Laplace. They are both crowned by high peaks. Along the +whole shore of the bay runs a chain of gigantic mountains, forming the +southern border of a wild and lofty plateau, called the Sinus Iridum +Highlands. Of course, a telescope is required to see the details of this +"most magnificent of all lunar landscapes," and yet much can be done +with a good field-glass. With such an instrument I have seen the capes +at the ends of the bay projecting boldly into the dark, level expanse +surrounding them, and the high lights of the bordering mountains sharply +contrasted with the dusky semicircle at their feet, and have been able +to detect the presence of the low ridges that cross the front of the bay +like shoals, separating it from the "sea" outside. Two or three days +after first quarter, the shadows of the peaks about the Bay of Rainbows +may be seen. The Bay of Dew (R) above the Bay of Rainbows, and the Sea +of Cold (C), are the northernmost of the dark levels visible. It was in +keeping with the supposed character of this region of the Moon that +Riccioli named two portions of it the Land of Hoar Frost and the Land of +Drought. + +Extending along the eastern side of the disk is the great Ocean of +Storms (Q), while between the Ocean of Storms and the middle of the moon +lies the Sea of Clouds (S). Both of these are very irregular in outline, +and much broken by ridges and mountains. The Sea of Humors (T), although +comparatively small, is one of the most easily seen of all the lunar +plains. To the naked eye it looks like a dark, oval patch on the moon. +With a telescope it is seen, under favorable conditions, to possess a +decided green tint. Humboldt Sea (B) and the South Sea (Z) belong +principally to that part of the moon which is always turned away from +the earth, and only their edges project into the visible hemisphere, +although, under favorable librations, their farther borders, lined as +usual with mountain-peaks, may be detected. For our purposes they +possess little interest. + +Let us now glance at some of the mountains and "craters." The dark oval +called Grimaldi (1) can be detected by the naked eye, or at least it has +been thus seen, although it requires a sharp eye; and perhaps a shade or +a pair of eye-glasses of London smoke-glass, to take off the glare of +the moon, should be used in looking for it.[F] It is simply a plain, +containing some fourteen thousand square miles, remarkable for its dark +color, and surrounded by mountains. Schickhard (7) is another similar +plain, nearly as large, but not possessing the same dark tint in the +interior. The huge mountains around Schickhard make a fine spectacle +when the sun is rising upon them shortly before full moon. + + [F] There are other uses to which such eye-glasses may be put + by sky-gazers. I habitually carry a pair for studying clouds. + It is wonderful how much the effect of great cloud-masses is + heightened by them, especially when seen in a bright light. + Delicate curls and striae of cirrus, which escape the uncovered + eye in the glare of sunlight, can be readily detected and + studied by the use of neutral-tinted eye-glasses or spectacles. + +Tycho (9) is the most famous of the crater-mountains, though not the +largest. It is about fifty-four miles across and three miles deep. In +its center is a peak five or six thousand feet high. Tycho is the radial +point of the great light-streaks that, as I have already remarked, cause +the southern half of the moon to be likened to a peeled orange. It is a +tough problem in selenography to account for these streaks. They are +best seen at full moon. They can not be seen at all until the sun has +risen to a certain elevation above them, 25 deg. according to Neison; but, +when they once become visible, they dominate everything. They turn aside +for neither mountains nor plains, but pass straight on their courses +over the ruggedest regions of the moon, retaining their brilliancy +undiminished, and pouring back such a flood of reflected light that they +completely conceal some of the most stupendous mountain-masses across +which they lie. They clearly consist of different material from that of +which the most of the moon's surface is composed--a material possessing +a higher reflective power. In this respect they resemble Aristarchus and +other lunar craters that are remarkable for their brilliancy under a +high illumination. Tycho itself, the center or hub, from which these +streaks radiate like spokes, is very brilliant in the full moon. But +immediately around Tycho there is a dark rim some twenty-five miles +broad. Beyond this rim the surface becomes bright, and the bright region +extends about ninety miles farther. Out of it spring the great rays or +streaks, which vary from ten to twenty miles in width, and many of which +are several hundred miles long--one, which we have already mentioned as +extending across the Sea of Serenity, being upward of two thousand miles +in length. It has been truly said that we have nothing like these +streaks upon the earth, and so there is no analogy to go by in trying to +determine their nature. It has been suggested that if the moon had been +split or shattered from within by some tremendous force, and molten +matter from the interior had been thrust up into the cracks thus formed, +and had cooled there into broad seams of rock, possessing a higher +reflective power than the surrounding surface of the moon, then the +appearances presented would not be unlike what we actually see. But +there are serious objections to such a view, which we have not space to +discuss here. It is enough to say that the nature of these streaks is +still a question awaiting solution, and here is an opportunity for an +important discovery, but not one to be achieved with an opera-glass. + +I may add an interesting suggestion as to the nature of these streaks +made by the Rev. Mr. Grensted. He holds that the air and water of the +moon were chemically, and not mechanically, absorbed in the process of +oxidation which went on at the time when her surface temperature was +above a red heat. Having a much larger surface in proportion to her bulk +than the earth, the oxidation of the moon has, he thinks, extended much +deeper than that of the earth, and her atmosphere and oceans have been +exhausted in the process. Both the earth and the moon, he maintains, +have metallic nuclei, and the streaks about Tycho and Copernicus, and +some other lunar craters, may be dikes of pure and shining metal, which +have escaped oxidation owing to the comparatively small supply of lunar +oxygen. Upon this theory Aristarchus must be a metallic mountain. + +[Illustration: SUNRISE ON CLAVIUS, TYCHO, PLATO, ETC.] + +Clavius (11) is one of the most impressive of all the lunar formations. +There probably does not exist anywhere upon the earth so wild a scene +upon a corresponding scale of grandeur. Of course, its details are far +beyond the reach of the instrument we are supposed to be using, and yet, +even with a field-glass, or a powerful opera-glass, some of its main +features are visible. It is represented in our picture of the half-moon, +being the lowest and largest of the ring-like forms seen at the inner +edge of the illuminated half of the disk; the rays of the rising sun +touching the summits of some of the peaks in its interior have brought +them into sight as a point of light, and at the same time, reaching +across the gulf within, have lighted up the higher slopes of the great +mountain-wall on the farther or eastern side of the crater-valley, +making it resemble a semicircle of light projecting into the blackness +of the still unilluminated plains around it. I should advise every +reader to take advantage of any opportunity that may be presented to him +to see Clavius with a powerful telescope when the sun is either rising +or setting upon it. Neison has given a spirited description of the +scene, as follows: + + The sunrise on Clavius commences with the illumination of a few peaks + on the western wall, but soon rapidly extends along the whole wall of + Clavius, which then presents the appearance of a great double bay of + the dark night-side of the moon penetrating so deep into the + illuminated portion as to perceptibly blunt the southern horn to the + naked eye. Within the dark bay some small, bright points soon + appear--the summits of the great ring-plains within--followed shortly + by similar light-points near the center, due to peaks on the walls of + the smaller ring-plains, these light-islands gradually widening and + forming delicate rings of light in the dark mass of shadow still + enveloping the floor of Clavius. Far in the east then dimly appear a + few scarcely perceptible points, rapidly widening into a thin bright + line, the crest of the great southeastern wall of Clavius, the end + being still lost far within the night-side of the moon. By the period + the extreme summit of the lofty wall of Clavius on the east becomes + distinct, fine streaks of light begin to extend across the dark mass + of shadow on the interior of Clavius, from the light breaking through + some of the passes on the west wall and illuminating the interior; and + these streaks widen near the center and form illuminated spots on the + floor, when both east and west it still lies deeply immersed in + shadow, strongly contrasting with the now brightly illuminated crest + of the lofty east wall and the great circular broad rings of light + formed by the small ring-plains within Clavius. The illumination of + the interior of Clavius now proceeds rapidly, and forms a magnificent + spectacle: the great, brightly illuminated ring-plains on the + interior, with their floors still totally immersed in shadow; the + immense steep line of cliffs on the east and southeast are now + brilliantly illuminated, though the entire surface at their base is + still immersed in the shades of night; and the great peaks on the west + towering above the floor are thrown strongly into relief against the + dark shadow beyond them. + +Newton (12) is the deepest of the great crateriform chasms on the moon. +Some of the peaks on its walls rise twenty-four thousand feet above the +interior gulf. Its shadow, and those of its gigantic neighbors--for the +moon is here crowded with colossal walls, peaks, and craters--may be +seen breaking the line of sunlight below Clavius, in our illustration. I +have just spoken of these great lunar formations as chasms. The word +describes very well the appearance which some of them present when the +line separating day and night on the moon falls across them, but the +reader should not be led by it into an erroneous idea of their real +character. Such formations as Newton, which is one hundred and forty +miles long by seventy broad, may more accurately be described as vast +depressed plains, generally containing peaks and craters, which are +surrounded by a ring of steep mountains, or mountain-walls, that rise by +successive ridges and terraces to a stupendous height. + +The double chain of great crater-plains reaching half across the center +of the moon contains some of the grandest of these strange +configurations of conjoined mountain, plain, and crater. The names of +the principal ones can be learned from the map, and the reader will find +it very interesting to watch them coming into sight about first quarter, +and passing out of sight about third quarter. At such times, with a +field-glass, some of them look like enormous round holes in the inner +edge of the illuminated half of the moon. Theophilus (23), Cyrillus +(24), and Catharina (25), are three of the finest walled plains on the +moon--Theophilus, in particular, being a splendid specimen of such +formations. This chain of craters may be seen rapidly coming into +sunlight at the edge of the Sea of Nectar, in our picture of "Sunrise on +the Sea of Serenity," etc. The Altai Mountains (26) are a line of lofty +cliffs, two hundred and eighty miles in length, surmounting a high +table-land. + +The Caucasus Mountains (38) are a mass of highlands and peaks, which +introduce us to a series of formations resembling those of the +mountainous regions of the earth. The highest peak in this range is +about nineteen thousand feet. Between the Caucasus and the Apennines +(44) lies a level pass, or strait, connecting the Sea of Serenity with +the Sea of Showers. The Apennines are the greatest of the lunar +mountain-chains, extending some four hundred and sixty miles in length, +and containing one peak twenty-one thousand feet high, and many varying +from twelve thousand to nearly twenty thousand. It will thus be seen +that the Apennines of the earth sink into insignificance in comparison +with their gigantic namesakes on the moon. As this range runs at a +considerable angle to the line of sunrise, its high peaks are seen +tipped with sunlight for a long distance beyond the generally +illuminated edge about the time of first quarter. Even with the naked +eye the sun-touched summits of the lunar Apennines may at that time be +detected as a tongue of light projecting into the dark side of the moon. +The Alps (41) are another mountain-mass of great elevation, whose +highest peak is a good match for the Mont Blanc of the earth, after +which it has been named. + +Plato (42) is a very celebrated dark and level plain, surrounded by a +mountain-ring, and presenting in its interior many puzzling and +apparently changeable phenomena which have given rise to much +speculation, but which, of course, lie far beyond the reach of +opera-glasses. Plato is seen in the picture of "Sunrise on Clavius," +etc., on page 133, being the second ring from the top. + +If Ariosto had had a telescope, we might have suspected that it was this +curious plain that he had in mind when he described that strange valley +in the moon, in which was to be found everything that was lost from the +earth, including lost wits; and where the redoubtable knight Astolpho, +having been sent in search of the missing wit of the great Orlando, was +astonished to find what he sought carefully preserved in a vial along +with other similar vials belonging to many supposedly wise people of the +earth, whom nobody suspected of keeping a good part of their sapience in +the moon. + +Copernicus (46) is the last of the lunar formations that we shall +describe. It bears a general resemblance to Tycho, and is slightly +greater in diameter; it is, however, not quite so deep. It has a cluster +of peaks in the center, whose tops may be detected with a field-glass, +as a speck of light when the rays of the morning sun, slanting across +the valley, illuminate them while their environs are yet buried in +night. Copernicus is the center of a system of light-streaks somewhat +resembling those of Tycho, but very much shorter. + +We must not dismiss the moon without a few words as to its probable +condition. It was but natural, after men had seen the surface of the +moon diversified with hills and valleys like another earth, that the +opinion should find ready acceptance that beings not unlike ourselves +might dwell upon it. Nothing could possibly have been more interesting +than the realization of such a fancy by the actual discovery of the +lunar inhabitants, or at least of unmistakable evidence of their +existence. The moon is so near to the earth, as astronomical distances +go, and the earth and the moon are so intimately connected in the +companionship of their yearly journey around the sun, and their greater +journey together with the sun and all his family, through the realms of +space, that we should have looked upon the lunar inhabitants, if any +had existed, as our neighbors over the way--dwelling, to be sure, upon a +somewhat more restricted domain than ours, vassals of the earth in one +sense, yet upon the whole very respectable and interesting people, with +whom one would be glad to have a closer acquaintance. But, alas! as the +powers of the telescope increased, the vision of a moon crowded with +life faded, until at last the cold fact struck home that the moon is, in +all probability, a frozen and dried-up globe, a mere planetary skeleton, +which could no more support life than the Humboldt glacier could grow +roses. And yet this opinion may go too far. There is reason for thinking +that the moon is not absolutely airless, and, while it has no visible +bodies of water, its soil may, after all, not be entirely arid and +desiccated. There are observations which hint at visible changes in +certain spots that could possibly be caused by vegetation, and there are +other observations which suggest the display of electric luminosity in a +rarefied atmosphere covering the moon. To declare that no possible form +of life can exist under the conditions prevailing upon the lunar surface +would be saying too much, for human intelligence can not set bounds to +creative power. Yet, within the limits of life, such as we know them, it +is probably safe to assert that the moon is a dead and deserted world. +In other words, if a race of beings resembling ourselves, or resembling +any of our contemporaries in terrestrial life, ever existed upon the +moon, they must long since have perished. That such beings may have +existed, is possible, particularly if it be true, as generally believed, +that the moon once had a comparatively dense atmosphere and water upon +its surface, which have now, in the process of cooling of the lunar +globe, been withdrawn into its interior. It certainly does not detract +from the interest with which we study the rugged and beautiful scenery +of the moon to reflect that if we could visit those ancient sea-bottoms, +or explore those glittering mountains, we might, perchance, find there +some remains or mementos of a race that flourished, and perhaps was all +gathered again to its fathers, before man appeared upon the earth. + +That slight physical changes, such as the downfall of mountain-walls or +crater-cones, still occasionally occur upon the moon, is an opinion +entertained by some selenographers, and apparently justified by +observation. The enormous changes of temperature, from burning heat +under a cloudless sun to the freezing cold of space at night with no +atmospheric blanket to retain heat (which has generally been assumed to +be the condition of things on the moon), would naturally exert a +disintegrating effect upon the lunar rocks. But the question is now in +dispute whether the surface of the moon ever rises above the +freezing-point of water, even under a midday sun. + +Mankind has always been a little piqued by the impossibility of seeing +the other side of the moon, and all sorts of odd fancies have been +indulged in regard to it. Among the most curious is the ancient belief +that the souls of the good who die on earth are transported to that side +of the moon which is turned away from the earth; while the souls of the +wicked sojourn on this side, in full view of the scene of their evil +deeds. The visible side of the moon--with its tremendous craters, its +yawning chasms, its frightful contrasts of burning sunshine and +Cimmerian darkness, its airless and arid plains and dried-up sea-bottoms +exposed to the pitiless cold of open space, and heated, if heated at +all, by scorching sunbeams as fierce as naked flame--would certainly +appear to be in a proper condition to serve as a purgatory. But we have +no reason to think that the other side is any better off in these +respects. In fact, the glimpses that we get of it around the corners, so +to speak, indicate that the whole round globe of the moon is as ragged, +barren, and terrible as that portion of it which is turned to our view. + +THE PLANETS.--In attempting to view the planets with an opera-glass, +too much must not be expected; and yet interesting views can sometimes +be obtained. The features of their surfaces, of course, can not be +detected even with a powerful field-glass, but the difference between +the appearance of a large planet and that of the stars will at once +strike the observer. Mercury, which, on account of its nearness to the +sun and its rapid changes of place, comparatively few persons ever see, +can perhaps hardly be called an interesting object for an opera-glass, +and yet the beauty of the planet is greatly increased when viewed with +such aid. Mercury is brilliant enough to be readily distinguishable, +even while the twilight is still pretty bright; and I have had most +charming views of the shy planet, glittering like a globule of shining +metal through the fading curtain of a winter sunset. + +Venus is, under favorable circumstances, a very interesting planet for +opera-glass observations. The crescent phase can be seen with a powerful +glass near inferior conjunction, and, even when the form of the planet +can not be discerned, its exceeding brilliancy makes it an attractive +object. The flood of light which Venus pours forth, and which is so +dazzling that it baffles the best telescopes, to a greater or less +extent, in any effort to descry the features of that resplendent disk, +is evidently reflected from a cloud-burdened atmosphere. While these +clouds render the planet surprisingly lustrous to our eyes, they must, +of course, keep the globe beneath them most of the time in shadow. It is +a source of keen regret that the surface of Venus can not be seen as +clearly as that of Mars, for, _a priori_, there is rather more reason to +regard Venus as possibly an inhabited world than any other of the +Earth's sister planets, not excepting Mars. Still, even if we could +plainly make out the presence of oceans and continents on Venus, that +fact would hardly be any better indication of the possibility of life +there than is furnished by the phenomena of its atmosphere. It is an +interesting reflection that in admiring the brilliancy of this splendid +planet the light that produces so striking an effect upon our eyes has +but a few minutes before traversed the atmosphere of a distant world, +which, like our own air, may furnish the breath of life to millions of +intelligent creatures, and vibrate with the music of tongues speaking +languages as expressive as those of the earth. + +Mars, being both more distant and smaller than Venus, does not present +so splendid a scene, and yet when it is at or near opposition it is a +superb object even for an opera-glass, its deep reddish-yellow color +presenting a fine contrast to that of most of the stars. It can often be +seen in conjunction with, or near to, the moon and stars, and the beauty +of these phenomena is in some cases greatly enhanced by the use of a +glass. To find Mars (and the same remark applies to the other planets), +take its right ascension and declination for the required date from the +Nautical Almanac, and then mark its place upon a planisphere or any good +star-map. This planet is at the present time (1888) slowly drawing +nearer to the earth at each opposition, and in 1892 it will be closer to +us than at any time since 1877, when its two minute satellites were +discovered. It will consequently grow brighter every year until then. +How splendidly it shines when at its nearest approach to the earth may +be inferred from the fact that in 1719 it was so brilliant as actually +to cause a panic. This was doubtless owing to its peculiar redness. I +well remember the almost startling appearance which the planet presented +in the autumn of 1877. Mars is especially interesting because of the +apparently growing belief that it may be an inhabited world, and because +of certain curious markings on its surface that can only be seen under +favorable conditions. The recent completion of the great Lick telescope +and other large glasses, and the approach of the planet to a favorable +opposition, give reason to hope that within the next few years a great +deal of light will be cast upon some of the enigmatical features of +Mars's surface. + +[Illustration: JUPITER AND HIS MOONS. (SEEN WITH A FIELD-GLASS; SEVEN +DIAMETERS.)] + +Jupiter, although much more distant than Mars, is ordinarily a far more +conspicuous phenomenon in the sky on account of his vast bulk. His +interest to observers with an opera-glass depends mainly upon his four +moons, which, as they circle about him, present a miniature of the solar +system. With a strong opera-glass one or two of Jupiter's little family +of moons may occasionally be caught sight of as excessively minute dots +of light half-hidden in the glare of the planet. If you succeed under +favorable circumstances in seeing one of these moons with your glass, +you will be all the more astonished to learn that there are several +apparently well-authenticated instances of one of the moons of Jupiter +having been seen with the naked eye. + +With a field-glass, however, you will have no difficulty in seeing all +of the moons when they are properly situated. If you miss one or more of +them, you may know that it is either between you and the planet, or +behind the planet, or buried in the planet's shadow, or else so close to +the planet as to be concealed by its radiance. + +It will be best for the observer to take out of the Nautical Almanac the +"configurations of Jupiter's satellites" for the evenings on which he +intends to make his observations, recollecting that the position of the +whole system, as there given, is reversed, or presented as seen with an +astronomical telescope, which inverts objects looked at, as an +opera-glass does not. In order to bring the satellites into the +positions in which he will see them, our observer has only to turn the +page in the Nautical Almanac showing their configurations upside down. + +Of course, since the motions of the satellites, particularly of the +inner ones, are very rapid, their positions are continually changing, +and their configurations are different every night. If the observer has +any doubt about his identification of them, or thinks they may be little +stars, he has only to carefully note their position and then look at +them again the next evening. He may even notice their motion in the +course of a single evening, if he begins early and follows them for +three or four hours. It is impossible to describe the peculiar +attractions of the scene presented by the great planet and his four +little moons on a serene evening to an observer armed with a powerful +glass. Probably much of the impressiveness of the spectacle is owing to +the knowledge that those little points of light, shining now in a row +and now in a cluster, are actually, at every instant, under the +government of their giant neighbor and master, and that as we look upon +them, obediently making their circuits about him, never venturing beyond +a certain distance away, we behold a type of that gravitational mastery +to which our own little planet is subject as it revolves around its +still greater ruler, the sun, to whose control even Jupiter in his turn +must submit. + +The beautiful planet Saturn requires for the observation of its rings +magnifying powers far beyond those of the instruments with which our +readers are supposed to be armed. It would be well, however, for the +observer to trace its slow motion among the stars with the aid of the +Nautical Almanac, and he should be able with a good field-glass to see, +under favorable circumstances, the largest of its eight moons, Titan. +This is equal in brilliancy to an 8.5 magnitude star. Its position with +respect to Saturn on any given date can be learned from the Ephemeris. + +It may appear somewhat presumptuous to place Uranus, a planet which it +required the telescope and the eye of a Herschel to discover, in a list +of objects for the opera-glass. But it must not be forgotten that Uranus +was seen certainly several, and probably many, times before Herschel's +discovery, being simply mistaken, on account of the slowness of its +motion, for a fixed star. When near opposition, Uranus looks as bright +as a sixth-magnitude star, and can be easily detected with the naked eye +when its position is known. With an opera-glass (and still more readily +with a field-glass) this distant planet can be watched as it moves +deliberately onward in its gigantic orbit. Its passage by neighboring +stars is an exceedingly interesting phenomenon, and it is in this way +that you may recognize the planet. + +On the evening of May 29, 1888, I knew, from the co-ordinates given in +the Nautical Almanac, that Uranus was to be found a short distance east +of Mars, which was then only a few degrees from the well-known star +Gamma Virginis. Accordingly, I turned my opera-glass upon Mars, and at +once saw a star in the expected position, which I knew was Uranus. But +there were other small stars in the field, and, supposing I had not been +certain which was Uranus, how could I have recognized it? The answer is +plain: simply by watching for a night or two to see which star moved. +That star would, of course, be Uranus. The accompanying cuts will show +the motions of Mars and Uranus with respect to neighboring stars at that +time, and will serve as an example of the method of distinguishing a +planet from the fixed stars by its change of place. In the first cut we +have the two planets and three neighboring stars as they appeared on May +29th. These stars were best seen with a field-glass, although an +opera-glass readily showed them. + +[Illustration: MARS AND URANUS, MAY 29, 1888.] + +[Illustration: MARS AND URANUS, JUNE 1, 1888.] + +[Illustration: MARS AND URANUS, JUNE 6, 1888.] + +On June 1st the relative positions of the planets and stars were as +shown in the second cut. A glance suffices to show that not only Mars +but Uranus also has shifted its position with respect to the three +immovable stars. This change of place alone would have sufficed to +indicate the identity of Uranus. To make sure, the inexperienced +observer had only to continue his observations a few nights longer. + +On June 6th Mars and Uranus were in conjunction, and their position, as +well as that of the same set of three stars, is shown in the third cut. +It will be seen that while Mars had changed its place very much more +than Uranus, yet that the latter planet had now moved so far from its +original position on May 29th, that there could be no possibility that +the merest tyro in star-gazing would fail to notice the change. Whenever +the observer sees an object which he suspects to be a planet, he can +satisfy himself of its identity by making a series of little sketches +like the above, showing the position of the suspected object on +successive evenings, with respect to neighboring stars. The same plan +suffices to identify the larger planets, in the case of which no glass +is necessary. The observer can simply make a careful estimate by the +naked eye of the supposed planet's distance and bearing from large stars +near it, and compare them with similar observations made on subsequent +evenings. + +THE SUN.--That spots upon the sun may be seen with no greater optical +aid than that of an opera-glass is perhaps well known to many of my +readers, for during the past ten years public attention has been drawn +to sun-spots in an especial manner, on account of their supposed +connection with meteorology, and in that time there have been many spots +upon the solar disk which could not only be seen with an opera-glass, +but even with the unassisted eye. At present (1888) we are near a +minimum period of sun-spots, and the number to be seen even with a +telescope is comparatively very small, yet only a few days before this +page was written there was a spot on the sun large enough to be +conspicuous with the aid of a field-glass. During the time of a +spot-maximum the sun is occasionally a wonderful object, no matter how +small the power of the instrument used in viewing it may be. Strings of +spots of every variety of shape sometimes extend completely across the +disk. Our illustration shows the appearance of the sun, as drawn by the +author on the 1st of September, 1883. Every one of the spots and +spot-groups there represented could be seen with a good field-glass, and +nearly all of them with an opera-glass. + +[Illustration: THE SUN, SEPTEMBER 1, 1883.] + +As in all such cases, our interest in the phenomena increases in +proportion to our understanding of their significance and their true +scale of magnitude. In glancing from side to side of the sun's disk, the +eye ranges over a distance of more than 860,000 miles--not a mere ideal +distance, or an expanse of empty space, but a distance filled by an +actual and, so to speak, tangible body, whose diameter is of that +stupendous magnitude. One sees at a glance, then, the enormous scale on +which these spots are formed. The earth placed beside them would be but +a speck, and yet they are mere pits in the surface of the sun, filled +perhaps with partially cooled metallic vapors, which have been cast up +from the interior, and are settling back again. It is worth anybody's +while to get a glimpse at a sun-spot if he can, for, although he may see +it merely as a black dot on the shining disk, yet it represents the play +of physical forces whose might and power are there exercised on a scale +really beyond human comprehension. The imagination of Milton or Dante +would have beheld the mouth of hell yawning in a sun-spot. + +In order to view the sun it is, of course, necessary to contrive some +protection for the eyes. This may be constructed by taking two strips of +glass four or five inches long and an inch wide, and smoking one of them +until you can without discomfort look at the sun through it. Then place +the two strips together, with the smoked surface inside--taking care to +separate them slightly by pieces of cardboard placed between the +ends--and fasten the edges together with strips of paper gummed on. +Then, by means of a rubber band, fasten the dark glass thus prepared +over the eye-end of your opera-glass in such a way that both of the +lenses are completely covered by it. It will require a little practice +to enable you to get the sun into the field of view and keep it there, +and for this purpose you should assume a posture--sitting, if +possible--which will enable you to hold the glass very steady. Then +point the glass nearly in the direction of the sun, and move it slowly +about until the disk comes in sight. It is best to carefully focus your +instrument on some distant object before trying to look at the sun with +it. + +As there is some danger of the shade-glass being cracked by the heat, +especially if the object-glasses of the instrument are pretty large, it +would be well to get the strips of glass for the shade large enough to +cover the object-end of the instrument instead of the eye-end. At a +little expense an optician will furnish you with strips of glass of +complementary tints, which, when fastened together, give a very pleasing +view of the sun without discoloring the disk. Dark red with dark blue or +green answer very well; but the color must be very deep. The same +arrangement, of course, will serve for viewing an eclipse of the sun. + +A word, finally, about the messenger which brings to us all the +knowledge we possess of the contents and marvels of space--light. +Without the all-pervading luminiferous ether, narrow indeed would be our +acquaintance with the physical creation. This is a sympathetic bond by +which we may conceive that intelligent creatures throughout the universe +are united. Light tells us of the existence of suns and systems so +remote that the mind shrinks from the attempt to conceive their +distance; and light bears back again to them a similar message in the +feeble glimmering of our own sun. And can any one believe that there are +no eyes out yonder to receive, and no intelligence to interpret that +message? + +Sir Humphry Davy has beautifully expressed a similar thought in one of +his philosophical romances: + + In Jupiter you would see creatures similar to those in Saturn, but + with different powers of locomotion; in Mars and Venus you would find + races of created forms more analogous to those belonging to the Earth; + but in every part of the planetary system you would find one character + peculiar to all intelligent natures, a sense of receiving impressions + from light by various organs of vision, and toward this result you can + not but perceive that all the arrangements and motions of the + planetary bodies, their satellites and atmospheres, are subservient. + The spiritual natures, therefore, that pass from system to system in + progression toward power and knowledge preserve at least this one + invariable character, and their intellectual life may be said to + depend more or less upon the influence of light.[G] + + [G] See "Consolations in Travel, or, the Last Days of a + Philosopher"; Dialogue I. + +Light is a result, and an expression, of the energy of cosmical life. +The universe lives while light exists. But when the throbbing energies +of all the suns are exhausted, and space is filled with universal gloom, +the light of intelligence must vanish too. + +One can not read the wonderful messages of light--one can not study the +sun, the moon, and the stars in any manner--without perceiving that the +physical universe is enormously greater than he had thought, and that +the creation, of which the Earth is an infinitesimal part, is almost +infinitely more magnificent in actual magnitude than the imaginary +domain which men of old times pictured as the dwelling-place of the +all-controlling gods; without feeling that he has risen to a higher +plane, and that his intellectual life has taken a nobler aim and a +broader scope. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Achernar, 94. + + Albireo ([beta] Cygni), 55. + + Alcor, 27. + + Alcyone, 102. + Maedler's "Central Sun," 104. + + Aldebaran, 22, 89, 91, 94, 95, 98. + + Algenib ([alpha] Persei), 84, 85. + + Algol, the Demon-Star, 83. + probable cause of variation of, 85. + + Al-Mamoun, the Caliph, observation of a temporary star, 35. + + Almaach ([gamma] Andromedae), 79, 82. + + Alphard, 16. + + Alpha Andromedae, 79. + Agnarii (Sadalmelik), 67. + Arietis (Hamal), 74. + Capricorni (Giedi), 65. + Ceti (Menkar), 70. + Draconis, formerly the pole-star, 102. + Librae, 52. + Ophiuchi (Ras Alhague), 42. + Orionis (Betelgeuse), 91, 98, 106. + Pegasi (Markab), 70. + Ursae Majoris, 28. + + Alpheratz ([alpha] Andromedae), 79. + + Alps, the lunar, 135. + + Altai Mountains, 135. + + Altair, 55. + + Andromedae, map of, 76. + mythology of, 75. + + Antares, 32, 33, 98. + + Antinous, 55. + + Apennines, the lunar, 135. + + Apollonius, regarded the moon as a mirror, 119. + + Aquarius, map of, 64. + mythology of, 67. + + Aquila, map of, 56. + mythology of, 55. + + Aratus, description of the Manger, 15. + the "Diosemia" of, 15. + the Phenomena of, 20. + story of Virgo, 51. + description of the "Royal Family," 78. + description of Cetus, 70. + + Arcturus, 10, 24, 26, 49, 56. + + Argo, map of, 110. + mythology of, 115. + + Aries, map of, 71. + mythology of, 75. + + Ariosto, story of a trip to the moon, 136. + + Aristarchus, the shining mountain, 125. + + Aselli, 15. + + Asterope, 103. + + Atlas, 102. + + Auriga, map of, 23. + mythology of, 23. + star swarms in, 22. + + Autumn, map of the Stars of, 62. + + + Bartschius invents Monoceros, 117. + + Bay of Dew, 129. + + Bay of Rainbows, 129. + + Bear's head, stars forming the, 28. + + Bellatrix, 90, 107. + + Belt, Orion's, 90, 107. + + Berenice's Hair, the constellation of, 24. + picture of, 53. + + Bessel, studies of Sirius and Procyon, 20. + letter about "dark stars," 114. + + Beta Andromedae (Mirach), 79. + Arietis (Sheratan), 75. + Capricorni (Dabih), 65. + Cassiopeia, 74. + + Beta Corvi, 25. + Cygni (Albireo), 55. + Librae, 52. + Leonis (Denebola), 12. + Lyrae, 50. + Pegasi, 70. + Scorpionis, 34. + Ursae Minoris (Kochab), 27. + + Betelgeuse ([alpha] Orionis), 91, 98, 106. + + Bethlehem, the so-called Star of, 87. + + Biela's comet, it breaks up, 82. + + Biela meteors, radiant point of the, 82. + + Booetes, map of, 50. + mythology of, 53. + + + Calisto, another name of Ursa Major, 29. + + Cancer, map of, 18. + mythology of, 15. + + Canes Venatici, 54. + + Canis Major, map of, 110. + mythology of, 115. + + Canis Minor, map of, 18. + mythology of, 21. + + Canopus, 114. + + Capella, 9, 22, 49, 89, 91. + + Cape Heraclides, 129. + Laplace, 129. + + Capricornus, map of, 64. + mythology of, 67. + + Cassiopeia, map of, 76. + mythology of, 75. + + Castor, 17. + + Catharina, 135. + + Caucasus Mountains, 135. + + Celaeno, 103. + + Central Gulf, 129. + + "Central Sun," Maedler's ideas about a, 104. + + Cepheus, map of, 58, 76. + + Cetus, map of, 71. + mythology of, 70. + + Chi Ceti, 73. + + Clavius, 124, 132, 133. + + Coal-Sack, 57. + + Comet, Biela's, 82. + + Comet, Halley's, the Crab Nebula mistaken for, 97. + + Constellations, origin of, 6, 42, 61. + along the Milky-Way, 116. + the zodiacal, 16. + + Constellations, St. Paul's knowledge of, 19. + + Copernicus, 136. + + Corvus, map of, 26. + mythology of, 25. + + "Crimson Star," 110. + + Crisian Sea, 127. + + Cynosura, a name of Ursa Minor, 29. + + Cygnus, map of, 56. + + Cyrillus, 135. + + + Dabih ([beta] Capricorni), 65. + + Dark Stars, Bessel's suggestion about, 114. + + Davy, Humphry, on life in other worlds, 147. + + Delta Canis Majoris, 112. + Cephei, 88. + Tauri, 99. + + Deltoton, 75. + + Denebola ([beta] Leonis), 12, 14, 24. + + Dipper, the Great, 10, 27. + + Dog-Days, origin of the, 111. + + Dog-Star, 111. + + Dolphin, map of the, 56. + mythology of the, 55. + + Draco, map of, 58. + mythology of, 57. + + + El Nath, 22, 97. + + Epsilon Leonis, 12. + Lyrae, 49. + Tauri, 99. + Virginis, 51. + + Equinox, autumnal, 52. + vernal, 74. + + Eridanus, map of, 93. + + Eta Aquilae, 55. + + + Field-glass, 6. + + Field of the Nebulae, 51. + + Flammarion, on [alpha] Capricorni, 65. + + Flood traditions connected with the Pleiades, 101, 102. + + Focus, importance of a sharp, 11. + + Fomalhaut, 63. + + Fontenelle, "Plurality of Worlds," 60. + + + Galileo, his telescope an opera-glass, 4. + his description of Praesepe, 15. + his description of the moon, 118. + power of his telescope, 119. + + Gamma Andromedae, 79, 82. + Leonis, 11. + Pegasi, 70. + Tauri, 99. + Virginis, 51. + + "Garnet Star" (Mu Cephei), 88. + + Gemini, map of, 18. + mythology of, 19. + + Genesis, a celestial, 68. + + Giedi ([alpha] Capricorni), 65. + + Glass, use of smoked or colored, 130, 146. + + Goldschmidt sees a nebula in the Pleiades, 104. + + Gomelza, 20. + + Gore, estimate of the stars in 13 M, 45. + + "Grape-Gatherer" ([epsilon] Virginis), 51. + + Grensted, Rev. Mr., suggestion about lunar rays, 132. + + Grimaldi, 130. + + + Halley's comet and Crab Nebula, 97. + + Hamal ([alpha] Arietis), 74. + + Haemus Mountains, 128. + + Henry, Paul and Prosper, photographs of the Pleiades, 105. + + Hercules, map of, 44. + mythology of, 45. + motion of solar system toward, 43. + + Herschel, William, discovers Uranus, 19. + computation of stars in 13 M, 45. + advice about seeing star-colors, 88. + thinks he sees lunar volcano, 125. + John, description of 8 M, 34. + suggestion about [alpha] Capricorni, 65. + + Holden, Prof., on the Milky-Way, 40. + structure of Ring Nebula, 105. + + Hooke, discovers first telescopic double star, 75. + + Hyades, 89, 95, 98, 99. + + Hydra, map of part of, 26. + mythology of, 16. + + Hydra's Heart (Alphard), 16. + + Humboldt Sea, 130. + + + Jeaurat, chart of the Pleiades, 104. + + Job's coffin, 55. + + Jupiter, 141. + satellites of, 142. + + + Kappa Argus, 116. + Tauri, 100. + + Kepler observes the star of 1604, 42. + + Kingsley, story of Andromeda, 77. + + "King's lucky star," 67. + + Kochab (Beta Ursae Minoris), 27. + + + Lake of Death, 129. + of Dreams, 129. + + Land of Drought, 130. + of Hoar Frost, 130. + + Leo, map of, 12. + mythology of, 13. + sickle-shaped figure in, 9, 14. + + Lepus, map of, 93. + + Lick telescope, views of Milky-Way, 40. + views of Ring Nebula, 105. + + Light, the messenger of the universe, 147. + in a star-cluster, 45. + + Libra, description and mythology of, 52. + + Life, does it exist beyond the earth? 37, 48, 137, 139, 140, 147. + + Locke, Richard Adams, author of the "Moon Hoax," 125. + + Lyra, map of, 44. + mythology of, 45. + + + Maedler, on the "Central Sun," 104. + + Maginus, 124. + + Maia, 103, 105. + + Man in the Moon, 121. + + Manger (Praesepe), 15. + + Marine glass, 6. + + Markab ([alpha] Pegasi), 70. + + Marsh of Mists, 129. + of Putrefaction, 129. + of Sleep, 127. + + Mars, 140. + + Medusa, the head of, 83. + + Menelaus, 128. + + Menkalina, 22. + + Menkar ([alpha] Ceti), 70. + + Mercury, 139. + + Merope, 102, 103. + + Mesarthim, 75. + + Meteors, radiant point of November, 11. + radiant point of Biela, 82. + + Micromegas, the story of, 115. + + Milk-Dipper, 34. + + Milky-Way, 17, 34, 39, 40, 43, 57, 81, 86, 116. + + Mira ([omicron] Ceti), 71. + probable cause of its variations, 72. + + Milton, account of Libra, 52. + + Mirach ([beta] Andromedae), 79. + + Mizar, 27. + + Moon, mountains of the, 120. + shadows on the, 120. + map of the, 123. + list of mountains, "seas," etc., 123. + inhabitableness of the, 136. + the other side of the, 138. + + "Moon Hoax," 125, 128. + + Monoceros, map of, 110. + + Mu Argus, 116. + Scorpionis, 36. + + + Nebulae (and Star-Clusters): + 4 M, 34. + 6 M, 37. + 7 M, 37. + 8 M, 38. + 13 M, 45. + 24 M, 38. + 25 M, 39. + 30 M, 66. + 34 M, 86. + 35 M, 18. + 37 M, 23. + 38 M, 23. + 41 M, 112. + 46 M, 116. + 50 M, 117. + 80 M, 35. + 93 M, 116. + 2^7, 117. + 33^7, 23. + 38^8, 116. + Andromeda, Great Nebula in, 79, 80. + Aquarius, Nebula in, 68. + Crab Nebula, 97, 98. + Field of the Nebulae, 51. + Horseshoe Nebula, 39. + Orion, Great Nebula in, 107. + Perseus, Great Cluster in, 86. + Pleiades, nebulae in the, 104. + Ring Nebula in Lyra, 50. + + Nebular hypothesis, 68. + + Neison, description of sunrise on Clavius, 133. + + Newton, 134. + + "Nile-Star," 111. + + Northern Cross, 54, 55. + + Northern Crown, map of the, 44. + + Northern Fish, 73, 79. + + Nu Andromedae, 79, 82. + Aquarii, a pointer to a nebula, 68. + Canis Majoris, 112. + Draconis, 58. + Scorpionis, 34. + + + Ocean of Storms, 130. + + Omicron Ceti (Mira), 71, 72. + Cygni, 57. + + Omicron two Eridani, a flying-star, 95. + + Opera-glass, views of the stars with, 3. + how to choose a good, 4. + magnifying power of, 4. + defects of, 5. + + Ophiuchus and Serpens, map of, 41. + mythology of, 41. + + Orion, map of, 93. + mythology of, 109. + great array of stars around, 90. + riches of, 106. + spectacle of the rising of, 89. + + Orpheus, fancies about the moon, 119. + + + Pegasus, map of, 64. + mythology of, 69. + + Perseus, map of, 76. + mythology of, 75. + great cluster in, 86. + + Phantom, another name of Hercules, 45. + + Photography, astronomical, 3, 105. + + Pi Argus, 116. + Five Orionis, 109. + Pegasi, 70. + + Pisces, map of, 71. + mythology of, 74. + + Piscis Australis, 67. + + Plato, 135. + + Pleiades, 10, 22, 89, 95. + names of the, 100. + mythology of, 100. + and the Flood, 101, 102. + and the Great Pyramid, 101. + picture of the, 103. + common motion of the, 104. + + Pleione, 102, 103. + + Pole-star, 10, 26. + + Pollux, 17. + + Praesepe (the Manger), 15. + + Prime Meridian, 74. + + Proclus, 127. + + Procyon, 9, 20. + + Pyramid of Cheops and the Pleiades, 101. + + Pyrenees Mountains, 128. + + + Ras Alhague ([alpha] Ophiuchi), 42. + + Rays of the Moon, 131. + + Regulus, 9, 11. + + Revolution of the heavens, 7, 30. + + Rho Ophiuchi, 33. + + Rigel, 91, 94, 98, 108. + + Ring Nebula, 50. + + "Royal Family," 63, 75. + + Rutherford, photograph of the moon, 122. + + + Sadalmelik ([alpha] Aquarii), 67. + + Sagitta, map of, 56. + + Sagittarius, map of, 34. + mythology of, 34. + + Saiph, 90. + + Saturn, 142. + + Scorpio, map of, 34. + mythology of, 32. + pair of stars in sting of, 37. + + Schickhard, 130. + + Sea of Clouds, 130. + + Sea of Cold, 129. + + Sea of Fertility, 127. + + Sea of Humors, 130. + + Sea of Nectar, 128. + + Sea of Serenity, 128. + + Sea of Showers, 129. + + Sea of Tranquillity, 127. + + Sea of Vapors, 129. + + Secchi, Father, types of the stars, 106. + description of a star-swarm, 39. + + Seiss, Rev. Dr., on Canis Minor, 21. + description of Auriga, 23. + + Sheratan ([beta] Arietis), 75. + + Sidus Ludovicianum, 27. + + Sirius, 9, 22, 91. + color of, 111. + size and distance of, 112. + the companion of, 21, 114. + its light compared with the sun's, 46. + + Sigma Tauri, 99. + + Sixty-one Cygni, 56. + + Smyth, Admiral, on Capricorn, 67. + description of Aldebaran, 98. + description of 35 M, 18. + + Solstice, summer, 16, 19. + winter, 38. + + Sobieski's Shield, 39. + + Solar system, voyaging of, in space, 43. + + Southern Cross, 91, 116. + + South Sea, 130. + + Spectroscopic analysis, 3, 98. + + Spica, 10, 24, 26, 51. + + Spring, map of the stars of, 8. + + Square of Pegasus, 69. + + St. Paul, acquainted with the constellations, 19. + + Star-Clusters (see Nebulae, etc.). + + Star-Cluster, light in a, 45. + + Summer, map of the stars of, 31. + + Sun, opera-glass observations of the, 145. + the, a variable star, 72. + + Sword of Orion, 107. + + + Taurus, map of, 93. + mythology of, 102. + the "Golden Horns" of, 96. + Poniatowskii, 42. + + Tau Aquarii, 68. + + Taygeta, 103. + + Temporary stars: + 134 B. C. the first on record, 35. + 393 A. D., 35. + 827, 35. + 1203, 35. + 1572, Tycho's star, 87. + 1578, 36. + 1604, 36, 42. + 1860, 35, 81. + 1885, 80. + + Temple, discovers a nebula in the Pleiades, 104. + + Tennyson, describes the Pleiades, 105. + + Theophilus, 135. + + Theta Orionis, 107. + Serpentis, 43. + Tauri, 99. + + Tobias Mayer, sees the planet Neptune, 69. + + Triangles, map of the, 71. + mythology of, 75. + + Twenty-two Canis Majoris, 112. + Scorpii, 33. + + Tycho Brahe, invents Antinous, 55. + places Hamal in Aries, 75. + studies the star of 1572, 87. + + Tycho, 122, 131. + + + Upsilon Tauri, 100. + + Uranus, discovery of, 19. + how to find, 142. + + Ursa Major, map of, 27. + mythology of, 28. + stars in the feet of, 28. + + Ursa Minor, map of, 27. + mythology of, 28. + + + Vega, 49. + + Venus, mistaken for artificial light, 2. + opera-glass observation of, 139. + + Virgil, description of Taurus, 96. + + Virgo, map of, 50. + mythology of, 51. + + Vision, seeing with averted, 13. + + Voltaire, story of "Micromegas," 115. + + Vulpecula, map of, 56. + + + Webb, Rev. T. W., on telescopes, 5. + on 35 M, 18. + + Western Fish, 73. + + Winter, brilliancy of the heavens in, 91. + map of the stars of, 92. + + Woman in the Moon, 121. + + + Zeta Corvi, 25. + Cassiopeia, 86. + Leonis, 11. + Lyrae, 50. + Scorpionis, 36. + Tauri, a pointer to the Crab Nebula, 97. + + Zi Argus, 116. + + Zodiac, 16. + + Zodiac, divided among the Twelve Apostles, 86. + of Dendera, 14. + + Zoellner, estimate of Sirius's light, 46. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Astronomy with an Opera-glass, by +Garrett Putman Serviss + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTRONOMY WITH AN OPERA-GLASS *** + +***** This file should be named 36741.txt or 36741.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/7/4/36741/ + +Produced by dkretz and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from +images generously made available by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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