CHAPTER ii ^ Recognizing 

 the Stars 



I! HE 



Jlth< 



HE SUN is of course the most familiar of all 

 the stars and yet not everyone realizes that 

 it is a star! It appears large and red, instead of small and cool like 

 other stars, because it is closer to us. The sun is more important 

 to us than any other body in the heavens. Without it, the scientists 

 tell us, life could not have begun on our planet; and if the sun 

 were to vanish, life would be hard put to survive. 



We can see all about us the results of the energy that the sun 

 gives to the earth. We owe almost all our heat and light as well as 

 energy, to the influence of this great ball of fiery gas. Plants cannot 

 grow without its beneficent rays, and the animals in turn draw 

 life-sustaining energy from the plants. It is not surprising that 

 ancient peoples worshiped the sun as their supreme god, and 

 that to us the word "sunshine" means "happiness." 



The sun is blazing hot hot beyond belief. It helps us to get 

 some idea of the sun's temperature when we consider how hot it 

 is in midsummer despite the fact that the nearest we ever come to 

 the sun is well over ninety million miles! The surface temperature 

 of the sun is about 5,800 centigrade. Inside its burning body the 

 temperature may be millions of degrees higher. 



The sun gives the illusion of varying in brightness and also in 

 size. Late in the day, as the sun sinks toward the western horizon, 



