152 Star anb Meatbet Gossip 



Then on July 9th, 1907, at 10 p.m., I made this note : 



Calm and cool ; wisps of cirrus cloud are becom- 

 ing visible. In a large patch of tender green sky, 

 due north, not many degrees above my skyline, 

 Capella blazes in loneliness. It is a little to the west- 

 ward of a line drawn from the Pole Star to the 

 horizon, that is, of its lower culmination. Not far 

 above Capella, the sky is of a darker greenish tint, 

 and higher up still, to where Polaris shines, it is a 

 dusky blue. Not a single star can I discern between 

 Capella and the pole. Capella is exceedingly 

 beautiful to-night ; as I have always thought it 

 to be in such seasonal circumstances. It is vividly 

 white, with just an occasional tinge of red. 



The French astronomer Flammarion has said of 

 Capella : " Elle est eloignee du pole de presque toute 

 la distance qui, s'etend de notre horizon a 1'Etoile 

 polaire, c'est-a-dire de presque la hauteur du pole a 

 Paris, de sorte que, comme la Grande Ourse, elle ne se 

 couche jamais pour nous, mais touche presque 1'horizon 

 du nord lorsque le mouvement diurne I'amene la-bas, 

 a son passage inferieur au meridien ; ce qui arrive le 

 soir en ete, du mois de mai au mois d'aout. Cette 

 etoile, nominee Capella, ou la Chevre, brille dans une 

 region relativement deserte, de sorte qu'elle n'est pas 

 aussi facile a trouver que les precedentes." 



So when the placid summer evenings come let us 

 not fail to watch for the gleaming of this solitary star 

 in the pearly northern sky, for its contemplation is 

 ever productive of pleasure. And if we should reflect 

 on the distant source of its beams, we may be assured 



