5 o6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



ASTRONOMY 



Stars of the Southern Skies. By M. A. Orr (Mrs. John Evershed). [Pp. 

 xii + 92, with 5 illustrations.] (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 191 5. 

 Price 2s. net.) 



THIS book has been written for those who know little about, but yet are interested 

 in astronomy, and have no instrument for examining the stars except their own 

 eyes with perhaps the addition of a pair of binoculars ; and also in the hope that it 

 may be of use to parents and teachers in answering some of the questions which 

 children are always asking. It is a volume possessing all the interest for which 

 we always look from Mrs. Evershed's pen (and here one is tempted to ask why it 

 has been published under the author's maiden name). It is surprising how much 

 information is contained within its slender compass. After descriptions of the 

 forms of, and the brightest stars in the chief constellations, specimens are chosen 

 from the stars of the southern sky in illustration of the generally accepted course 

 of stellar evolution, of the relative distance and motion of the stars, of double and 

 multiple stars, of new stars, of variable stars both regular and irregular, of star 

 clusters of various kinds, of nebulae and of the relation of the Milky Way to the 

 stellar system. The southern sky possessing, as the author remarks, "the most 

 beautiful part of the Milky Way, the two brightest stars in the sky, the finest 

 coloured star cluster, the largest globular cluster, the brightest double star, the 

 nearest of the stars, and the brightest of the large gaseous nebulae," lends itself 

 admirably to this mode of treatment. She might have added that, in Eta Argus, 

 it possesses also the brightest of the "new stars" of the last century. To this 

 truly astonishing star a special chapter is devoted, but no mention is made of the 

 fact that it was discovered last year by Mr. Innes at the Union Observatory, 

 Johannesburg, to be a double star. It is interesting to note that since this volume 

 went to press, Mr. Innes has found yet another companion. In discussing also 

 the short-period variables, and the cause of their light variations, no mention is 

 made of the theory which accounts for these by means of pulsations in the 

 atmosphere of a single star, a theory which avoids many of the difficulties of the 

 various theories which presuppose a binary system, and which, on the whole, 

 seems the most probable. Nevertheless, the whole field of descriptive astronomy 

 is briefly surveyed, and many of the results arrived at by modern research are 

 presented. The volume should stimulate the interest of many in astronomy, and 

 inasmuch as the southern skies have been less studied than the northern, and so 

 present an even wider field for amateur workers, some may be induced to com- 

 mence work in one or other of the directions which Mrs. Evershed points out as 

 being particularly useful and convenient for amateurs with but small instruments. 



H. S. J. 



The Stars and their Mysteries. By Charles R. Gibson, F.R.S.E. [Pp. 248, 

 with 19 illustrations and diagrams.] (The Science for Children Library. 

 London : Seeley, Service & Co., Ltd., 1916. Price 3J. 6d.) 



Mr. Gibson has a unique and well-deserved reputation for presenting to children 

 the results of scientific research in a manner that is not merely interesting, but 

 even attractive and fascinating. The present volume, although not so good as the 

 best of his previous ones, yet fully maintains his reputation. No subject should 

 appeal so strongly to the child's imagination as astronomy, if rightly presented, 

 and for children of from nine to fifteen years of age we know of no book on 

 astronomy more likely to achieve this aim and to awaken the child's interest. 



