Part 2 (1/2)
How, then, is one to distinguish them? How can they be readily found and named? There are so many of the the surface of the Earth we raphical maps on which the continents and seas of which it consists are draith the utmost care Each country of our planet is subdivided into states, each of which has its proper naard to the Heavens, and it will be all the easier since the Great Book of the Firlobe, moreover, actually revolves upon itself so that we read the whole in due sequence Given a clear atmosphere, and a little stimulus to the will froraphy of the Heavens, or ”uranography,” will soon be as faraphy of our terrestrial atoht, e look toward the starry sky, we are at first aware only of a nu specks The stars seeh space; they are so numerous and so close to one another that it would appear rash to attehter ones particularly attract and excite our attention After a little observation we notice a certain regularity in the arrangeinary figures round the celestial groups
That is what the ancients did frouide themselves across the trackless ocean, the earliest Phenician navigators noted certain fixed bearings in the sky, by which they mapped out their routes In this way they discovered the position of the immovable Pole, and acquired empire over the sea The Chaldean pastors, too, the nomad people of the East, invoked the Heavens to assist in their rouped the more brilliant of the stars into Constellations with siave to each of these celestial provinces a nadoms It is impossible to deterraphy The Centaur Chiron, Jason's tutor, was reputed the first to divide the Heavens upon the sphere of the Argonauts But this origin is a little mythical! In the Bible we have the Prophet Job, who nao The Babylonian Tables, and the hieroglyphs of Egypt, witness to an astronomy that had made considerable advance even in those remote epochs Our actual constellations, which are doubtless of Babylonian origin, appear to have been arranged in their present form by the learned philosopher Eudoxus of Cnidus, about the year 360 BC Aratus sang of them in a didactic poem toward 270 Hipparchus of Rhodes was the first to note the astronomical positions with any precision, one hundred and thirty years before our era He classified the stars in order of htness; and his catalogue, preserved in the Alest of Ptoleht Constellations
The figures of the constellations, taken almost entirely froination, and where the ancients placed such and such a person or ani we choose to fancy There is nothing real about these figures And yet it is indispensable to be able to recognize the constellations in order to find our way a the innumerable army of the stars, and we shall commence this study with the description of the most popular and best known of theh our Northern Heavens Needless to name it; it is familiar to every one You have already exclaimed--the Great Bear!
This vast and splendid association of suns, which is also known as the Chariot of David, the Plow or Charles's Wain, and the Dipper, is one of the finest constellations in the Heavens, and one of the oldest--seeing that the Chinese hailed it as the divinity of the North, over three thousand years ago
If any of et its position in the sky, the following is a very si it Turn to the North--that is, opposite to the point where the sun is to be found at midday Whatever the season of the year, day of the h up in the fired in a quadrilateral, followed by a tail, or handle, of three stars This ht and day it watches above us, turning in twenty-four hours round a very famous star that we shall shortly becoure of the Great Bear, the four stars of the quadrilateral are found in the body, and the three at the extremity make the tail As David's Chariot, the four stars represent the wheels, and the three others the horses
Sometimes our ancestors called them the Seven Oxen, the ”oxen of the celestial pastures,” from which the word septentrion (_septem triones_, seven oxen of labor) is derived Soure the Dipper As it rotates round the pole, its outline varies with the different positions
It is not easy to guess why this constellation should have been called the Bear Yet the name has had a certain influence From the Greek word _arctos_ (bear) has come arctic, and for its antithesis, antarctic From the Latin word _trio_ (ox of labor) has coical Is not the word ”venerate”
derived frouish one star fro them by the letters of the Greek Alphabet has been adopted, for it would be iive a name to each, so considerable is their number[3]
[alpha] and [beta] denote the front wheels of the Chariot generally known as the ”pointers;” [gamma] and [delta] the hind wheels; [epsilon], [zeta], [eta] the three horses All these stars are of the second order ofof this expression will be explained in the next chapter), except the last ([delta]) of the quadrilateral, which is of the third order
[Illustration: FIG 3--The Great Bear (or Dipper), and the Pole-Star]
Figure 3 gives the outline of this pri in twenty-four hours round the Pole, which is situated at the prolongation of a line drawn from [beta] to [alpha], it occupies every conceivable position,--as if this page were turned in all directions
But the relative arrange these seven stars itsun, a center of force and life One of them is especially remarkable: [zeta], known as Mizar to the Arabs Those who have good sight will distinguish near it a minute star, Alcor, or the Cavalier, also called Saidak by the Arabs--that is, the Test, because it can be used as a test of vision But further, if you have a small telescope at your disposal, direct it upon the fine star Mizar: you will be astonished at discovering two of the finest diamonds you could wish to see, hich no brilliant is comparable There are several double stars; these we shall becoet our celestial geography The Great Bear will help us to find all the adjacent constellations
[Illustration: FIG 4--To find the Pole-Star]
If a straight line is drawn (Fig 4) froh [alpha], which fored by a quantity equal to the distance of [alpha] fronitude, which ure perfectly comparable with the Great Bear, but s in the contrary direction This is the Little Bear, co brother, of seven stars; the one situated at the end of the line by which we have found it is the Pole-Star
Iion of the North Pole, the Pole-Star has captivated all eyes by its position in the firone astray on the ocean, for it points them to the North, while it is the pivot of the immense rotation accomplished round it by all the stars in twenty-four hours Hence it is a very important factor, and we e It should be added that its special iation of the Earth's axis, is merely an effect caused by the diurnal movements of our planet Our readers are of course aware that it is the earth that turns and not the sky But evidence of this will be given later on In looking at the Pole-Star, the South is behind one, the East to the right, and the West to the left
Between the Great and the Little Bear, we can distinguish a winding procession of son
We will continue our journey by way of Cassiopeia, a fine constellation placed on the opposite side of the Pole-Star in relation to the Great Bear, and shaped somewhat like the open limbs of the letter W It is also called the Chair And, in fact, when the figure is represented with the line [alpha] [beta] below, the line [chi] [gaaht line is drawn froed beyond the Pole-Star in a quantity equal to the distance which separates these two stars, it is easy to find this constellation (Fig
5) This group, like the preceding, never sets, and is always visible, opposite to the Great Bear It revolves in twenty-four hours round the Pole-Star, and is to be seen, now above, now belo to the right, now to the left
[Illustration: FIG 5--To find Cassiopeia]
[Illustration: FIG 6--To Find Pegasus and Andro from the stars [alpha] and [delta] in the Great Bear, we drao lines which join at Polaris and are prolonged beyond Cassiopeia, we arrive at the Square of Pegasus (Fig 6), a vast constellation that teration for to Andromeda, and theasus is also the first in Andronificent double orb, to which we shall return in the next chapter, _ie_, the telescope resolves it into two marvelous suns, one of which is topaz-yellow, and the other ereen Three stars, indeed, are visible with more powerful instruments
[Illustration: FIG 7--Perseus, the Pleiades, Capella]