Daily Los Angeles herald., 1882-01-14

comes nearly invisible; and then,
In the same space OF time, it recov-
ers its maximum brilliancy. The
period of its variability lie rapidly
decreasing. Some astronomers are
of the opinion that the variability
of Algol is caused by an opaque
secondary or satellite, revolving
around 1t at an enormous rate OF
speed. AS the period is rapidly
decreasing, the orbit of the satel-
lite Is evidently becoming shorter,
and its ultimate destiny will be to
be absorbed by it's primary. When
this satellite falls upon the surface
OF Algol the heat thus engendered
will cause that star to blaze forth
with the brilliancy of the Pilgrim
when at his brightest. Other as
tronomers assign as reason for
the variability of stars that they
have unequaliy illuminated sides;
and, as they rotate upon their
axes, exhibit at one time a
bright side, and at another a side
showing less light. Or, their va
Inability may be occasioned by
moving in very elliptical orbits,
like the comets of our system. On
two occasions, however, within
the present century stars have sud.
denly blaxed forth with bril-.
liancy evidently caused by a con.
fagration upon their surfaces or
in their atmospheres. On the
night OF the 18th of May, 1865. a
star was seen shining with second
magnitude brightness in the con.
stellation Of the Northern Crown,
where twenty-four hours earlier no
star exceeding the fifth magnitude
had been seen. It's brightness
rapidly declined until by the end
Of the month it shone only as q tel
escopic star Of the ninth msgni-
tude. In November, 1876, new
star was discovered In the constel.
lation Cygnus. 1t shone at first as
a star Of the third magnitude; but
its briliianoy gradually decline / un-
til, by the middle OF March, 1877, it
had sunk to below the eighth mag.
nitude. Analysis Of the spectra of
these stars showed the presence of
glowing hydrogen, aud astrono.
mers are generally agreed that the
sudden blazing forth of these two
stars was caused by the descent of
bodies of meteors upon their sur
faces. Most of us can remember
the sudden increase in the splen-
dor of the sun which was observed
on the 1st of September, 1859, and
which was supposed to have been
caused by the rush of meteoric
masses through the solar atmos-
phere. Fortunately for US the in
crease of brilliancy lasted but for a
few minutes, yet even in that short
space of time the occurrence of
great and unusual electromagnetic
disturbances upon the earth showed
that our planet was greatly affect,
ed by the change. Sir J, Herschel
says that ''in many places the tel
''egraph wires struck work. AT
"WashingtOn and Philadelphia
"the electric signalmen received
"severe electric shocks. At sta
"tion in Norway the teIegraphic
apparatus was set fire to, and at
"Boston a flame of fire followed
"the pen of Bain's electric tele-
"graph, which writes down the
messages npon chemically pre-
spared paper"
Whoever started the hoax con.
corning the "Star of Bethlehem
has certainly succeeded in causing
great amount of discussion, in
which has been displayed various
degrees of astronomical knowl.
edge. A lady told us, the other
day, that the Star Of Bethlehem
was visible at San Bernardino, but
not at Los Angeles; and she was
quite anxious to 60 to the former
city to see this stellar wonder be.
fore it disappeared. Probably she
will restrain her eagerness after
this article. However that may
be, we are confident that she will
finally lean to our views of matters
astronomical, including the star