Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-07-12

ems win eventually be greatly changed
; II ON their present appearance. Orion,
now SO beautiful and attractive during
the winter season, will then no longer
hold supremacy over the consultations
The well-known big Dipper" will
sometime in the distant future assume
very different appearance from tn at
now presented to our view, and must
finally cease to attract the attention of
the amateur ''star- gazers," as it does at
present, by the beauty of it's familiar
figure in our northern sky.
One of the most notable examples of
the constant and yet almost impercep-
tible changes taking place in our firma-
ment is to be found in the motions of
the seven bright stars forming the
big Dipper" above mentioned, in the
circum-polar constellation known as
,,Ursa Major. DIR. Higgins, the emil
inent English astronomer, has found,
by means of the spectroscope that five
of these stars are moving in the
same direction, with nearly the same
velocity, and receding from the earth
at the rate of about twenty miles per
second, which seems to indicate that
they are travelling together forming
IAN independent group, and are asso-
ciated with each other in some mystic
rious way at present unknown to the
astronomers The late Prof Proctor
referred to them as the drifting
stars" and this community of motion,
where groups of stars appear to be
travelling as systems, he termed 'star-
drift" of which there are many inter-
esting examples to be found inn the va
rious parts of the heavens.
The stars in the neighborhoodo of the
constellation Hercules appear to be ap-
preaching us and those in the opposite
part of the heavens appear to be reced-
ing from
This apparent motion common to all
the stars is believed to be due to the real
motion of the sun through space; and
as the sun moves he of course carries
the earth an all the planets along with
him. But whether the sun is actually
moving in straight line or around some
distant center it is impossible to de-
termine ut the present time. 1t is
estimated, however, that the sun is
moving along his path at the rate of
about $50, 100000 miles year, which
corresponds to about five-sixths of the
diameter of the earth's orbit. Motion
along the line of sight has been de-
tected by the use of the new and
marvellous instrument known as the
''tele spectroscopc,' owing to the fact
that it causes a displacement of the
spectral lines. 1t has been found that
displacement of spectral line toward
the red end of the spectrum indicates a
motion away from us, and a displace-
ment toward the violet end a motion
toward us.
Although all the stars in the firma-
ment-which are suns like our own
are probably in motion, yet so far
away are they that their movements
are scarcely pcrecptible; nor can we
detect more than the slightest change
in position, in the case of some Of
them, in whole lifetime, owing to
the immense distances which separate
them from our earth.
A recent writer, referring to the mo-
tions of the stars, truly remarkcd: LAS
to the changes in these groups, we
shall never he ahla to no+inn +lAA.-> -
our brief lifetime, but the stars are all
in swiftest motion, flying through
space, and though their distance is SO
great that from century to century tho
changes caused by their movements are
scarcely to be noticed, yet the time
changes will have entirely altered the
appearance of the starry heavens"
THE two pointers" in the big
Dipper" now so convenient to casual
observers of the heavens, will some time
in the distant future cease to indicate
the position of the pole STAR" as they
do at present, for there are no fixed
stars" and each one of those far-off
suns, flaming in the immensely Of
space, is swept along in a movement so
rapid that the human mind can hardly
| conceive it and almost grows weary
| even in it's contemplation; and the
writer ventures to predict that before
many years have elapsed there will be
recognized among the stars a variety of
constitution and completely of arrange
ments, strilkingly contrasted with the
general uniformity of structure at
present taught in most of our text
books on astronomy.-Arthur X. Bart
lett, in Inter Ocean.