The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-05-05
Lost Stars.

stars, or stars variable in their brightness
and consequent visibility through periods
Of time, extending 10 the different cases
from few days to many years, and occa.
sionally, it is believed, to several centuries.
Thus the star termed by astronomers Algol,
or Persei, varies in brightness from the
second to the fourth magnitude, and back
again, in the short period of two days,
twenty hours and forty-eight minutes.
Lyre varies from the third to the fifth
magnitude, and comes back to the third
again, in six days and nine hours. 0mi-
cron, or Mira Ceti, varies from the second
magnitude to complete invisibility, and re-
appears and comes up to the second mag.
nitude agning in three hundred and sixty
four days. Argus varies from one of the
very brightest of the stars Of the first mag.
nitude in the whole heavens down to a
most inconsiderable one Of the fourth mag
nitude, and blazes out again up to the first
magnitude in about forty-six years; while
II. Gopher varies from the fifth magnitude
down to the eleventh magnitude, or visible
only in very powerful telescope, and re.
turns to the fifth, which is visible to the
naked eye, in about seventy-three years.
Now these stars, no matter how much they
may vary in brightness, are no more lost
aud perished in space when they fade away
and disappear to US, than our sun is when
hid from our view at night by the inter-
cepting body Of the earth. Neither are
they moved out Of their fxity of place nor
deprived of any of their mass or gravita.
tion-governing power over their attendant
planets, any more than our sun is, when
at times now known to be periodic and
subject to law, his bright surface is dimmed
by many dark spots Hence, the simplest
supposition to explain the observed phe.
nomena Of the star fifty-ffth of Hercules
is, that il is one Of those "variable stars -
in which case it still undoubtedly exists in
its own place, and will again appear to view
there at some future time. But mere
telescope details can affect only the few
while the general public is rather thirsting
for taste ofsome good big star which all can
see. "Was there not such star" they ask,
"brithter than any of the orbs which we
have before US now, to be seen once in the
constellation of Cassiopeia; and did it not
burn and blaze through several years in
varied colors, just like a world on fire, and
then disappear and leave its place abso.
lutely vacant p Sucha star was certainly
seen by all the northern world in 1872.
1873, aud 1874, but not previously to that;
until, at least, you ascend the stream Of
time to 1854, when temporary apparition
Of the same sort appeared in the same part
Of the sky; and again the same thing is
reported in history to have occurred in the
year 945 A. d. So that here again we
have merely an extreme case Of "varia-
ble' star, with an intense though short
lived maximum of light and long-con-
tinued minimum. But so far from being
now because its minimum is below human
visibility lost, lapsed, or destroyed star,
it may be, and probably is, going on in its
own place according to laws which it has
followed in the past, and will continue tc
follow for countless millions Of years, with
out a moments cessation at any time
Aud in fact the sequence of the numbers
$40, 1864, 1872, lead astronomers to ex-
pect its temperance at some time previ.
Gus to 1890. And if it does shine forth
again at that time, and prove itself in the
scientific world to be "a variable" with a
period Of more than three hundred years
it will not only get the physical nature Of
its light well examined by spectroscopiS
analysis, but will strengthen that variable
star explanation" for the benefit Of many
other temporary stars with still Longer
periods of time; and longer we say advi.
sedly, because only one of their maxims
of brightness is known to have been wit
messed yet through all the human period.
Such were the intensely bright star in
Serpentarious in 1904 A. d.; the bright
star in Scorpio in 900 A. D.; another in
Aquila in 3SS A. D.; and still another in
l3O A. d.; not to say anything of the still
more celebrated and classic case of the
"Lost Pleiad, which the poets affirmed to
have disappeared in grief after the seige
and taking of Troy, about 1900 B. c.,
leaving thereby the primeval group of ''the
seven stars" to be six only ever since; but
with the asserted destiny of the seventh
one shining forth at some future time
brighter than ever A sort Of carly po.
etical prophecy, which the recent progress
of practical astronomy on one side and
archaeological research on the other, espe.
cially at the Great Pyramid, have been
lending remarkable confirmation to within
the last few years Chambers Journal