Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1872-01-27
STAR GAZING.

lie, VINO can ne impressed ny the
beautiful, and have the heart to love,
and the soul to appreciate the sub
limest Of all the mighty works of the
Creator; cast your mantle about you
on any cloudless evening ere old win
ter departs, and follow in my foot
steps. We will not go further than
that holy temple whose towering
spire, capped with giant hand, points
in solemn silence TO the heavens
above. On reaching this, let us move
few steps toward the North on to
the elevated ground. Here, as we
face the East, the broad expanse of
sky and horizon opens before the Wis.,
ion. l need not tell you what to
look upon, for the eye will involun-
tarily move towards the splendor of
the starry armament.
You will first notice the "Great
Corona" its long line of graceful
curve beginning at Capella, and
ending at Sirius, sweeps down and
across the deep blue dome. The
bright central star is Jupiter; on each
side of him are brilliant stars. Pro-
cyon intervening between Sirius !;
and Castor and Pollux and Menka-
lena between Capella. The great
planet moves slowly towards the east,
and will leave the circle to grace
again the coronet on the dark brow
of night.
But you may ask me, where is Ca
pella? will tell you If you do not
know. 1t Is in the constellation of
Aur:ga, and is the starting point to
trace the "Great Corona" Stand
facing the north; lat this writing
early in the EVENING" raise your eyes
towards the zenith, and before quite
reaching it, look little to the right,
about six degrees of celestial space
from the meridian and you will see
the star; it is of the first magnitude ;
then about seven degrees to the right
is Menkalena, beautiful star Of the
second magnitude; then about fif-
teen degrees further, in tracing the
curve, Is Castor and Pollux In Gem
mi, then Jupiter, then still further
to the right is Procyon in CAMS minor
and lastly, Sirius in the south east.
The latter glorious star is the bright
est of all the suns beyond our sys-
tenn. Among the Persians 1t was
a special object of worship; Hesiod
and Homer both refer to it, and the
shepherds on the plains of Chaldaea,
more than four sousand years ago
watched Its rising with peculiar in
terest. 1t was called So. Is by the
ancient Egyptians; and in a;i ages
and among all nations, mankind
have been impressed by the splendor
of its light. Its parallax as deter
mined by several distinguished as
tronomers is only about one fourth
of second this would make its dis
lance more than eighty billions of
miles from the earth. What then
must be its mass, if at this incon-
ceivable distance it lights up the
heavens around it, and pales the les
ser stars that peep from the depths
of space beyond.
Let us now draw an imaginary
line from Capella to Sirius. This is
the chord of the arc little towards
the west from its centre is a bright
star of the first magnitude this is
Betelgucse, in the great constellation
Of Orion. A few degrees further west
ere three stars which form his belt,
and are named Mintaka, Anilam
and Alnilak. They are all double
stars, and are of the second magni.
tude. Near them is the celebrated
nebula in his sword. When q tele-
scope having n power of one thous-
and is fixed upon this nubula, sight
surprising description is revealed to
the eye. What we look upon with
the natural vision rs luminous haze
is changed into thousands of flash
ing suns; taking the form of huge
monster with open mouth, and body
well defined. In its mouth Is the
well known trapezium, whose stars
are used rs test for the space pene-
trating powers of the larger instru-
ments. Through that trapezium no
trace of light has yet been discovered
not the fuintest star dust. 1t is
like hole in the universe-all be-
You'd being the blackness of dark
ness.
The bright and beautiful star still
further west, is Rigel. 1t is in the
left foot of Orion, and at the head Of
Eridanus. Down towards the south
this river runs in starry course, un-
ill lost TO view. Let us turn again
to the belt of Orion. A line project
ed from the three stars points to Siri-
us in the southeast, and to the Hy-
AIDES and the Pleiades toward the
northwest. The bright red star In
the Hyades (which are in the form
of a W is Aldebaran. The classic
names of the stars in this constella-
ton are Ambrosia, Coronis, Eudora,
Dione, Hsula and Polyxo. How
beautiful they are! 1t ia said in
mythic story that they were the
daughters Of Atlas, and sisters of the
Pleiades, and having died of grief for
the loss of brother, the Gods out of
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