CHAPTER EIGHT 



SOME THINGS TO OBSERVE AND EXPLAIN 



CAN you see stars at nine o'clock in the evening which 

 could not be seen at eight o'clock? Are any stars 

 visible at eight o'clock which disappear before nine? 

 On a winter evening are the same stars visible as during 

 a summer evening? Do the stars move? Do they 

 change their positions with respect to one another? 

 Does their brightness change in the course of an evening? 

 Does it differ on different evenings? Do stars near the 

 horizon twinkle less than those higher up? Do stars 

 differ in color ? Does a star ever change its color ? 



If you were to go a long way from home, would you 

 see the same stars you saw at home ? Would you see 

 any different ones? If you were to count all the stars 

 visible to your unaided eye, would the number be more 

 or less than 600? more or less than 6000? Can you 

 see more stars on some evenings than on others ? Could 

 you see the greatest number of stars from your own 

 home, from a mountain top, or from a ship on the 

 ocean ? 



These questions are to guide you in your observations 

 and to give you something to think about. Merely 

 reading them over is of no use, and you need not seek 

 answers in books. When you can answer any of them 

 because of observations you have made yourself, then 

 see if you can account for what you have observed. 

 To do this with half the questions, even if your answers 

 are partly wrong, is better for you than to get the right 



1 In order to answer correctly the questions in this chapter, the stars 

 must be observed at different times. 



