CHAPTER ONE 



KNOWLEDGE OF THE STARS 



CAN you remember looking up into the sky when you 

 were a little child and wondering about the stars? 

 And did you learn to recite the familiar lines : 



Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 

 How I wonder what you are ! 

 Up above the world so high, 

 Like a diamond in the sky. 



Are you now too old to wonder about the stars or to 

 wander in imagination among the celestial spheres? 

 Should you like to know where shooting stars come from, 

 what they are, and what becomes of them? Are the 

 other stars like them? Do people live on the stars? 

 If they do, can they see the earth, and what would the 

 earth look like from the stars? 



The science of astronomy. The science which treats 

 of the heavenly bodies is called astronomy. It is inter- 

 esting to study because it satisfies the spirit of wonder 

 within us, our desire to know, which is the foundation 

 of all science. It is also a most useful science. It 

 enables us to determine directions and to keep accurate 

 time. For thousands of years men have guided their 

 course across the seas and over desert wastes by the 

 stars, and by the use of astronomy explorers have found 

 their way over unknown regions of the earth. Maps 

 and surveys are based on observations on the stars. 

 The surveyor who marks out the line of a railroad or 

 the boundaries of a farm is using knowledge gained 

 from study of the heavenly bodies. 



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