The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-07
LEARNING THE STARS.
PROF. PROCTOR TELLS HOW TO
LEARN THEIR PO5ITIONSs

Consultations Visible in the
Northern, Middle and Southern
United States-The Effect of Travel
ing Southward--The Southern Cross
Copyright 1885, b8 S. S. Mcclure.
find that many who care little for the
study of the abtruser problemss of astron-
omy are greatly interested in the stars, or
rather in the consultations. They share
the feeling expressed by Carlyle when he
said "Why does not some one teach me the
stars. which l don't half know to this day!"
and by Milton who in II Penseroso, speaks
of one of tie delights Of the peaceful her
uitage, which his weary eye was to find,
being that
There he might sit and rightly spell
OF every star that Heaven doth show.
1t is not because of any special value such
knowledge may possess that men care to
learn the stars. 1t is not every one who is
likely to have the same use for the pole star
that that colored person had for it., for
whom Bird O'Fredum Sawin:
Turn'd roun about southwest, and lookin' out
bit,
Picked out middlin shining one, an told him
that was it,
There is q charm in learning the stars
knowledge may be applied. There is
special charm in knowing the constella-
tions whether it be the Quaintness of the
figures assoc ated by men OF old with the
star groupings, or the antiquity of those old
fancies, or perhaps some lntuiJive percep
ton of the vast periods of time, millions of
years before man began TO be, during which
practically the same steller confguratons
have looked down upon the earth, it would
be hard to say; but certain it is that all men
not billiards are moved by the contempla-
ton of the stars as they are by 10 other
equally general and equally familiar sub
jects of human study.
To learn the stars is a task which may be
made easy or difficult according as the
learner sets about iG. If i'll a haphaZard
way, at any convenient hour of the night,
and with no special attention to the progress
of the seasons the intending learner turns
his attention to the heavens and gets some
one who knows the stars to tell him what
this star is or that, what this or that other
star group, he may be all his life studying
the stars, and still have to say with Car
lyle lat sixtv) 81 don't half know them to
tnis day" But if, OIL the contrary, ne OBJ
serves the heavens once O week or SO (once
fortnight will do very Well at the same
hour for ten minutes each time, and con-
tinues his observations systematically for a
year, he will be able by that time to learn
every constellation visible from his station
and Gf he likes the names of all the CON
spicuous stars, or even the letter or number
of every star that heaven doth show. Yet
supposing him to make weekly observations
he will have given in all but eight or rine
hours to the work and they will not have
been hours of hard work but indeed of pleas
ant and instructive recreation. (Half that
time will in reality sutfice) He will also
have noted much about other orbs than the
stars and have gained an insight into the
movements real and apparently of the
heavenly bodies which could not have been
as satisfactorily obtained from any amount
of study.
The great thing is to begin rightly. For
this purpose l do not know that any better
course can be followed than the old fash
toned one of starting with the Dipper, which
in England we call the Plough, and which
rejoices also in other names, as the Butchers
cleayer, the Wagon, Homer knew it by
that name) Charles Vain Ia corruption of
Churls or Charles Vain or wagon, and in
time by host of other titles. Every one
suppose knows the Dipper-if not, the first
person he asks, can in general point it out.
Then the two stars farthest from the
Polar star, and running the eye from the
Polar star parallel to the length of the Dip
per, the learner sees the Guardians of the
Pole, pair of stars nearly as bright as the
Polar star.
And now from any elementary star atlas,
or from one of those works like my own
"Half Hours with the Stars'1 expressly in
tended for teaching the beginner the stars,
our learner can see what part of the Great
Bear is formed by the Dipper, and what
part of the Little Bear by the Pole star and
Guardians. SO that thenceforth he knows
these two important consultations. For,
coming back a fortnight later to the study
of the heavens, he finds these consultations,
without any trouble, not far from where
he had first learned them. (All the stars
round the pole are carried round in direct
ion contrary to that in which tine
hands Of clock move, once in twenty-four
hours, less about four minutes, and if al
ways the same hour is used for observation,
they are carried round once in year. A
circuit in 1855 days corresponds to about
four minutes gain per day.
In the first few nights of the easy course
OF study l have suggested, the learner may
direct his attention to the northern heavens.
He will very soon learn all the star groups
there. After the two Bears, he can take
the Dragon, which winds between the Bears
round the Guardians of the Pole, round the
Pole itself in a wide sweep. and presently
bends back toward two bright stars mot
unlike the Guardians for brightness and
distance apart which mark the Dragons
eyes. | ought rather to say that in old
times these stars marked the Dragons eyes;
but the modern map-makers instead Of try
ing to catch the features which suggested
the old names and picturings of the constel-
lations, seem careful to obliterate them as
much as possible; so that as they picture the
Bears with long tails, such as no bears ever
had, they put the Dragons head into pro-
file, entirely losing the effect which the two
eyes had once suggested. Odd Arastus
caught the idea of the still earlier astrono
mers who named this constellation, speak
ing of the Dragon as having
Eyes oblique retorted
Which aslant cast cleaning hre)
The Dragon adds wide region of the
starry heavens to our learners knowledge.
In the peighborhood of the Dragons head
he finds, and soon begins TO be familiar
with, the consultations Lyra the Tyre, Cyg
nus the Swan, King Cepheus, and Casio
peia in one direction, Hercules the Kneel-
ing Giant, and Bootes the Herdsman, in the
other. Bootes can also be learned directly
from the Great Bear which the Herdsman
seems to be pursuing.
And now having learned the constella
tons over a wide circumpolar region, the
student can pass over from these toward
the star groups rising in the east or setting
In the west-usng either an ordinary stal-
atlas TO connect new groups with those al
ready learned, or u guide to the heavens on
Particular nights aud in different seasons
or preferably he may use both, for maps OF
the latter sort cannot give SO many details
as regular star-atlas. But different learn
a