TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS 



181 



illuminated by the light of its many 

 neighboring suns. It may readily be 

 imagined that this discovery has a very 

 important bearing on our studies of the 

 structure of our universe, and thus, al- 

 though the Pleiades may be unknown 

 to the great majority of people, they 

 hold a high position in the regard of 

 the astronomer. 



***** 



The November Stars. 



The region of the sky between the 

 Pleiades and the eastern horizon is now 

 filled with most brilliant and beautiful 

 stars. The entire constellation of the 

 Bull has risen high into the heavens : 

 to the left of this there shines the bright 

 golden sun, Capella, while below it we 

 see the Twins and Orion, (that most 

 brilliant of all the star groups), just 

 emerging from below the ground. In 

 almost the exact center of the constella- 

 tion of the Bull, there shines out the 

 reddish Aldebaran, one of the most con- 

 spicuous of the winter stars but whose 

 brightness is now so far exceeded bv 

 that of the near-by planet Jupiter that 

 it is this latter object which first catch- 

 es our attention as we turn toward the 

 eastern sky. 



The very brilliant stars just men- 

 tioned constitute the first of the bright 

 winter groups. From now until next 

 March they will be seen riding high in 

 the evening heavens in excellent posi- 

 tion for examination and study. Before 

 turning his attention to these, there is a 

 special reason this month why the ob- 

 server should trace out and become fa- 

 miliar with the far fainter, though ex- 

 tended, group of Cetus, which is now 

 found in the south, a little to the east 

 of the meridian. 



Cetus is the fabled sea monster, us- 

 ually represented as resting on the bank 

 of the Celestial River, Eridanus, with 

 his forepaws in the water. All of its 

 stars are, unfortunately, rather faint, 

 but the observer may with little diffi- 

 culty locate the irregular pentagonal 

 figure of five stars, A B C D, Fig. i, 

 which marks the head, and also the ir- 

 regular group of four stars at E. F- G 

 and H, after which a recognition of 

 the remaining stars of the figure be- 

 comes easy. 



The star at D will be found to be a 

 beautiful double in a small telescope, 

 the components being three seconds 



apart and described as yellow and ash 

 colored. This double sun system is 

 drifting across the face of the sky at a 

 rate which will change its position an 

 amount equal to the apparent distance 

 across the face of the full moon in the 

 course of nine thousand years. The 

 star at F has a distant companion also, 

 though too faint to be seen in a small 

 telescope, and this star is drifting even 

 more rapidly than the star at D. There 

 are some eighteen other interesting 

 double stars and many nebulas within 

 the borders of this little known constel- 

 lation but its most remarkable object is, 

 beyond question, its wonderful varia- 

 ble star, Mira, which will be found at 



K. 



* * * ;ji * 



The Variable Star, Mira. 

 The observer will have no difficulty 

 in finding the wonderful Mira, for it is 

 nearly in line with the eastern edges 

 of the two quadrilateral figures already 

 referred to and about midway between 

 them. At a rather irregular interval of 

 about three hundred and thirty-one 

 days this sun increases thirteen hundred 

 times in brightness, and its time of 

 greatest brilliancy will occur this year 

 on the first of the present month. The 

 observer will then probably see it shin- 

 ing about as brightly as the star at D, 

 and it may even become so bright as the 

 star at A- But if he will look at it from 

 time to time during the coming weeks 

 he will see that it is very rapidly fading 

 away : in the course of a few months it 

 will sink far below visibilty to the nak- 

 ed eye, not to rise again until the au- 

 tumn of next year. 



When brightest Mira has been known 

 to exceed Aldebaran in brilliance ; some- 

 times it rises only to about the fourth 

 magnitude, and three centuries ago it 

 once remained invisible to the eye for 

 no less than four years. The interval 

 of time elapsing between two succes- 

 sive outpourings of its light also varies 

 irregularly to the extent sometimes of 

 so much as twenty-five days. The 

 causes of these irregularities ,and in- 

 deed even the cause of the remarkable 

 periodic increase in the light and heat 

 of this distant sun, are wholly unknown 

 to us. 



The November Shooting Stars. 

 It is during the early mornings of No- 



