The Nevada Democrat., 1861-03-26
The Motions of the Fixed Stars.

The structure Of our stellar system, and
the motions of the Fixed stars, has occupied
large share of the attention of modern as
tronomers, and this grandest of all prob
lens that ever engaged the human mind is
moving steadily forward to its solution.
The most important contribution to our
knowledge of the subject has been made by
the herculean labors of M. Maedler, super.
intendent of the Observatory of Dorpat, in
Russia. The Scientific American in refer
ring to his labors, says:
There can be no doubt that our solar sys.
tenn is moving through space in the direc-
tion of the constellation Hercules, the pre-
else point being not far from 1920 right as
censlon, and 400 north declinatiOn. Nearly
all astronomers acquiesoe also in Maedler;s
conclusion, that there is no large central
body which controls the movements of the
other stars by its preponderating mass.
Maedler Is, however, satisfied that all the
bodies of our stellar system are revolving
about common center of gravity, and to
the determining of the position OF this CEN
ter he has devoted great deal of labor and
study.
Among all the consultations in the sky.
there is no other which has. in all ares at
tracted so much human interest as the little
cluster of the Pleades. One of the finest
passages in Scripture is the question to Job:
'Canst thou bind the sweet influence of
Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion ?'
And, for many centuries a succession of
poetic feeling has gathered around "The
long lost sister OF the seven stars" But
fresh interest has now been given TO this
storied group, for the computations of
Maedlar lead to the conclusion that Alcy-
one, the brightest star of the cluster. occu-
pies the very center around which the hosts
of heaven roll their majestic courses.
The distance of our sun from the centre
Of gravity of this stellar system. as well as
the velocity Of its motion, is vet undeter-
mined, though some of Maedler's observa-
tons Indicate that the distance is such that
it would take light GAO years to pass
through the space, that the suns velocity in
bis orbit IS about 1000 miles per minute,
and that it will take him about 10000. 900
of years to make one revolution. The lat
est conclusion in regard to the size of our
stellar system, is that ray of light moving
at the rate Of l92, 900 miles per second
"NN'A ASiNHN dOOub 3tUUU years 10 DAES
through its diameter.
The Pleiades are at this time of the wear
almost exactly overhead at O'Clock in the
evening, and, of course, farther west later
in the evening. A little way to the south
east of the Pleiades are the Hyades-fve
stars in the form Of a ", with bright star
in the end of one side Still farther to the
aoutheast Is Orion, with the three biggest
stars 10 bis belt. Farther still. in the same
direction, forming almost a straight line
with the three groups mentioned, is the Dog
Star, Sirius the brightest of all the fixed
stars. But, as we have said, the most in
teresting of these is the faint little cluster
OF Pleiades, for it is probable that around
the brightest of this group, Alcyone, our
own sun and all the stars that we can see
in the sky, are sweeping 10 their immense
orbits