508 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the real motive for scientific research all such danger is dissipated, 

 and he will earnestly seek to add his life work as 



u . . . a closer link 

 Betwixt us and the crowning race 



" Of these that eye to eye shall look 



On knowledge ; under whose command 

 Is Earth and Earth's, and in their hand 

 Is Nature like an open book ; 



" No longer half akin to hrute, 



For all we thought and loved and did, 

 And hoped, and suffered is but seed 

 Of what in them is flower and fruit." 



* 



PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 



By GARRETT P. SERVISS. 

 VI. FROM LYRA TO ERIDANUS. 



TTTE resume our celestial explorations with the little constel- 

 V V lation Lyra, whose chief star, Vega (a), has a very good 

 claim to be regarded as the most beautiful in the sky. The posi- 

 tion of this remarkable star is indicated in map No. 17. Every 

 eye not insensitive to delicate shades of color perceives at once 

 that Vega is not white, but blue- white. "When the telescope is 

 turned upon the star the color brightens splendidly. Indeed, 

 some glasses decidedly exaggerate the blueness of Vega, but the 

 effect is so beautiful that one can easily forgive the optical 

 imperfection which produces it. With our four-inch we look for 

 the well-known companion of Vega, a tenth-magnitude star, also 

 of a blue color deeper than the hue of its great neighbor. The 

 distance is 50", p. 158. Under the most favorable circumstances 

 it might be glimpsed with the three-inch, but, upon the whole, I 

 should regard it as too severe a test for so small an aperture. 



Vega is one of those stars which evidently are not only enor- 

 mously larger than the sun (one estimate makes the ratio in this 

 case nine hundred to one), but whose physical condition, as far as 

 the spectroscope reveals it, is very different from that of our rul- 

 ing orb. Like Sirius, Vega displays the lines of hydrogen most 

 conspicuously, and it is probably a much hotter as well as a much 

 more voluminous body than the sun. 



Close by, toward the east, two fourth-magnitude stars form a 

 little triangle with Vega. Both are interesting objects for the 

 telescope, and the northern one, e, has few rivals in this respect. 

 Let us first look at it with an opera glass. The slight magnifying 



