TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS 



17 



nitiuie" but some estimates include a few 

 more. Of these twelve only the follow- 

 ing eight are visible in this latitude. 



First Magnitude Stars. 



Sirius Altair 



Vega iletelgeuze 



Capella Procyon 



Arcturus Rigel 



:^ 5f: * * * 



A Few of the Other Bright Stars You 



Should Know. 



Aldebaran T'ollux 



Antares o • 



Deneb ^pica 



Polaris Fomalhaut 



Denebola Regulus 



Famous Variables. 



Algol ( Beta of Perseus) — a short 

 period (little less than three days). 



Mira (Omicron of Cetus) — a long 

 period (about eleven months). 



Delightful Companionable. 



Rigel (dainty blue with tiny compan- 

 ion) 



Xi of Ursa Major ( ]\Tizar, a double, 

 with Alcor)- 



A Few Best Double Stars. 



Gamma Andromedae (Almaack). 



Gamma Arietis (^Mesartim). 



Gamma Leonis 



Albireo 

 Castor 



Eta Cassiopeise 

 70 Ophiuchi 

 Omicron Eridani 



Quadruple : 



Epsilon Lyrse. 



Star Clusters. 



Naked Eye : Pleiades, Hyades. 



Opera Glass : Praesepe, Coma Bereni- 

 ces. 



Telescope: Double in Perseus. 13 AI in 

 Hercules, 35 Gemini. 



Nebula : 



Andromed?, Orion. 



How Far Away Are They? 



The distances of the planets from the 

 sun (and also from each other) as shown 

 in their table of specifications are meas- 

 ured in millions of miles- Even the near- 

 est stars are too far away for such a 



measuring scale. Light travels about 

 186,330 miles per second. The distance 

 that light travels in a year is used as a 

 measuring unit in stating the distances of 

 the stars. The nearest well-known and 

 very bright star is Sirius which is 8.6 

 light years distant- ( A faint star, La- 

 lande, is 6.9 light years). 61 Cygni is 8 

 light years- 

 Many of the brightest and well-known 

 stars are so far away as to be beyond 

 measurement. The well-known Pleiades 

 are supposed to be so far away as to take 

 the light (travelling at 186,330 miles a 

 second) 250 years to reach us. Of course 

 such distances are not only unmeasure- 

 able but inconceivable ! 



A Trio of Good Ones. 



G is the first letter in good, and the G 

 of the Greek alphabet is Gamma. When 

 I was showing some of my favorite 

 double stars to visitors in the Astro- 

 nomical Observatory, it occurred to me 

 that I had a trio of good ones and that 

 they all are Gammas, and therefore 

 not only really good, but alHteratively 

 good. They are Gamma Andromedae, 

 Gamma Arietis, and Gamma Leonis. I 

 believe that the second one was, ac- 

 cording to some authorities, the first 

 discovered. The first in the list is 

 surely what our feminine gazers would 

 call the sweetest companionship of all ; 

 a well-known astronomer says that the 

 third is the brightest and most spec- 

 tacular. As the small boy might say, 

 "They are all beautiful ;" but an astron- 

 omer might well exclaim, "They are 

 Gamma, good !" 



Inconceivable Distances of Stars. 



It is probable that the stars in the 

 Milky Way are from seven hundred to 

 a thousand "light years" away, and as 

 the power of stellar photography has 

 increased, more remote stars are con- 

 tinually revealed. Just think of it! 

 Many of these stars we see not as they 

 existed in our own time or even in that 

 of our forefathers, but as they were 

 before man lived on earth ! Perhaps 

 there are some that the people of this 

 world will never see. — Henry Handy 

 McHenry, in "Popular Astronomy." 



The Moon. 



Pale wraith in the sky in morning light 

 It illumes and glorifies the night. 



— Emma Peirce. 



