26 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW |17:1— Jan., 1921 



Astronomers believe Deneb to be so far away from us that it 

 takes the light from it 3 2 5 years to reach the earth. The spectrum 

 shows us that the star is approaching the earth at the rate of 30 

 miles a second. We may see it every night in the year some times 

 between sun set and midnight. It is most attractive during early 

 evening in January and February, when it hangs low in the north- 

 west. 



Alcott in "Star Love of All Ages" alludes to the appearance of 

 the Northern Cross on Christmas Eve as "At nine o'clock this 

 brilliant cross of stars stands upright on the western hills, outlined 

 against the sky, as if beckoning all beholders onward and upward. 

 A beautiful symbol of the Christian faith, glorious, perfect and 

 eternal." 



The Pleiades 



Harold G. Dye 



Throughout all ages the filmy light of the Pleaides has stirred 



the imagination of man. This small dipper-shaped group of 



bluish stars is visible from every comer of the 



globe. The myths, legends, and literature 



of every age and race are filled with references 



to this tiny cluster of twinkling stars. For 



over four thousand years the poets have 



The Pleiades, a group drawn upon this bountiful storehouse, for 



of six small stars sur- songs of delightful sweetness and charm. 



light The sweet-voiced Pleiades were described 



by Bayard Taylor, as a cluster of "golden 



bees;" and by Tennyson, as "glittering like a swarm of fireflies" in 



the evening's dusk. 



The Pleiades lie on the shoulder of the Bull close to the ecliptic. 

 They rise in the northeastern part of the sk3^ The whole constel- 

 lation covers little more than three square degrees. In this con- 

 stellation a person of normal vision can distinguish six stars, 

 which are in the shape of small dipper. Exceptionally keen 

 sighted individuals have been able to make out from seven to 

 fourteen stars; but the latter mark is exceedingly rare. However 

 with the telescope nearly three thousand have been photographed. 

 These stars are extremely far away. Light traveling 186,000 

 miles per second, night and day, takes over three hundred years 

 to reach us from these far distant suns. Although they take up 



