Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-21

my laboratory, to go outside, and asked
them, as well as all that passed by, if they,
like me, saw the star, which had suddenly
appeared. Learned a!terward that in Ger
many, wagoners and other common men
had called the attention of astronomers to n
great apparition in the sky, which gave
fresh occasion for the usual jesting at the
expense ofmen ofscience, as on the occasion
of the comets whose coming had not
been predicted. The new star had no
tail; no nobula surrounded it: in all points
it was like other stars of first magnitude
Its brilliance surpassed that OF Sirius, Lyra
and Jupiter. 1t could be compared only to
that of Venus when she is at the least dis
tance possible from the earth. Persons en-
dowed with good sight could distinguish
TINS star by day, even at noon, when the sky
was clear. With the month of December
l5s2 its brightness began to wane; it was
then equal to Jupiter. In January it became
less brilliant than Jupiter. In February
and March it became equal to the stars Of
the first magnitude. In April and MAY its
brilliancy was equal to that of stars of the
second magnitude. Its diminution from the
fifth to the sixth magnitude took place from
December, 1913, to February, 1914. The fol-
lowing month the new star disappeared
leaving no trace distinguishable to the naked
eye, after having shone Il months.
1t Was the Star ofBethlehem.
Few events in history have made so much.
stir as the appearance of this mysterious
messenger of the sky. 1t appeared on the
11th Of November, 1872 few months after
the massacre of st. Bartholomew. The
general anxiety of the period, popular
superstition, the fear of comets the dread
of the end of the world, for long time pre-
dicted by astrologers, afforded an excellent
background tor such an apparation. 1t was
soon announced that the new star was the
one which had led the wise men to Betble-
bar,1 hat itS j. IL
turn of the Goldman upon earth and the
last judgment.
After the star of 1872, the most celebrated
is the one which appeared in October, 1904,
in Serpentarius, and which was observed bv
two lllustrlous astronomers-Kepler and
Calico. AS had happened in,the case of its
predecessor, its light grew weak bv insensi-
bic degrees; it. lived Is months and disap
peared, leaving no trace In 1870, another
temporary star. shining in the head of Rev
nard, presented the singular phenomenon
OF dying out and blazing forth again several
times before vanishing completely.
What the spectrosoope Shows.
We have knowledge of 26 such stars
which within 900 years have presented a
sudden eIaltation of light, have been visi
BILE to the naked eye, often dazzling bright.
and then have become again invisible to the
naked eve. The two latest apparitions of
this sort came to our notice in 1866 and 1876.
and made it possible for spectrum ANALYSIS
to determine that, as we have seen, q YER
liable combustion was going on in these
stars confagration due to formidable
expansion of lncandescent hydrogen and to
phenomena analogous to those which take
place in the solar photosphere 1t is
circumstance worthy of remark that these
stars do not flame in any other quarter of
the sky indiferentlv, but only within quite
limited region, chiefly in the neighbor-
hood ofthe milky way.
Let a general explosion take place in one
of these suns, let it be suddenly enveloped
in protuberances of inhamed hydrogen, and
let the dark network in which we have seen
floating the luminous granulations of the
solar photosphere, disappear under the con-
densation of the shining faculae; or else let
a sun which is beginning to cool and to be
covered with solid crust to be torn apart
by eruptions from the interior furnace. or
again let the fall of an enormous meteor or
collision with a celestial body crush in
some newly-formed continent on the sur
face of a sun, which is becoming encrusted:
or, suppose two formidable metoric streams
to run against each other in space-and YOU
have satisfactory explanation of our tenn
porary stars which have shone forth sud5
denly with dazzling brightness, to relapse
into their former state or to fall into ami
hilation. CAMILLE FLAMMARIoN.