CHAPTER XYIL 
THE STARS ABOUT US. 
Which is the brightest star in the sky ? It is not 
difficult to find, for the star Sirius outshines them all 
easily enough. Yenus often seems larger, but she is 
a planet and no star, and shines by the refiected light 
of the sun, as does the moon. 
How many other bright stars can you find that 
might be put in the same class with Sirius ? If you 
should group the visible stars, how many classes 
would you make ? It will interest you to stop read¬ 
ing here and examine the stars, for the purpose of 
discovering an answer to the foregoing question, to 
find how nearly you agree with the astronomers. 
Astronomers do a great deal of guesswork in 
classifying the stars as to their brilliancy. Professor 
Pickering, of Harvard, was the first to adopt a syste¬ 
matic plan for measuring the magnitude of the stars. 
He made a catalogue of nearly five thousand stars, 
varying from the first to the fifteenth magnitude. 
All the brightest stars are said to be of the first 
magnitude. Of these there are twenty-one. I will 
add the names, as they are few and of sufficient inter¬ 
est. Later you may be able to locate them. The 
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