Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1892-03-24


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
a 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 its familiar
figure in our northern sky
Ono of the most notable examples of
the constant and yet almost impercep-
tiblc changes taking place in our tirma-
ment is to he found in the motions of
the seven bright stars forming the
big Dipper" above mentioned, in the
circum-polar constellation known as
Ursa Major. DR., higgins, the emil
nent 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
an 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 in the va
rious parts of the heavens.
The stars in the neighborhood of the
constellation Hercules appear to be APP
preaching us and those in the opposite
part of the heavens appear to be reced-
ing from us.
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 and 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 at the present time. 1t is
estimated, however, that the sun is
moving along his path at the rate of
about $50, 5000 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 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 displace-
ment toward the violet end motion
toward u.s.
Although all the stars in the firma-
ment-which are suns like our own
are probably in motion, yet so far
away arc they that their movements
are scarcely perecptiblc; nor can we
detect moro than the slightest change
in position, in the case of some of
them, in a whole lifetime, owing to
the immense distances which separate
thcm from our earth.
A recent writer, referring to the mo-
tions of the stars, truly remarked: Gas
to the changes in these groups, we
shall never be able to notice them in
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 the
changes caused by their movements are
scarcely to be noticed, yet the time
will como when these slowly growing
changes will have entirely altered the
appearance of the starry heavens.
1.-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-ofl
suns, flaming in the immensely OF
space, is swept along in n movement SC
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 u variety Of
constitution and ccmplexity of arrange
ments, strilSingly contrasted with the
general uniformity of structure al
present taught in most of our text
books on astronomy. Arthur X. Bart
lett, in Inter Ocean.