Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-01

lExHx%&NEE scarcely one-tenth of
"RN'' the celestial sphere
are seven stars of the first magnitude-one
OF them. Sirius, the og star the brightest
star In the heavens: another Of them. Ca
pella the brightest in the northern hemi-
sphere Here is the great Mike figure of
Orion. the prince Of the consultations. i'm
| p sing In itself, and surrounded with a halo
of poetry and mythology which date hack
| 10 and beyond the time of Homer. Here is
Taurus. the celestial Bull. whose dutv II
| Was anciently to open the year with his
golden horns" Here are the finest two
| hakeu-eye star clusters, the Hyades in the
buls face, and the Pleiades. in his
SHOULDER: and here. too. invisible to the
naked eye. Is the largest of the nebulae
that in the sword of Orion. We can spend
our evening profitably within the limits of
| this region.
The lowermost Of the bright stars now
| before Us is Sirius, Enthusiastically from
| its surprising briliancy equal to that of
nine ordinary stars of the first magnitude
| Among the ancientS Sirius was generally
regarded as star of banefuI Influence
The Persians called 1t Tishtya and dreaded
Its malfgn radiance as the cause of summer
| droughts and of disease among men and
cattle. Similar notions respecting it were
prevalent among the Greeks and Romans
| The Egyptians, on the contrary. regarded il
| as Sothis. and 1t was believed to be the
residence of the goddess Isis Its rising,
or f1rSt appearance above the horizon at
daybreak. which occurred In July. marked
| the beginning of the Egyptian year. This
| event brought with 1t the annual inunda-
| ton which fertilized the valley of the Nile.
and IL was. perhaps because of the stars
supposed watchful care over the Interests
| OF the husbandman that IL was sometimes
| called Anubis the Dog, a name which still
| cngs to 1t.
known Distances.
| Sirius is one of the few stars-about 100
| of which the distances from us are known.
with greater or less margin of uncer-
tainty. 1t ranks third i'm the order of dis
lance, not first, formerly naturally
supposed to be the case. the nearest star.
| so far as is now known. being Alpha Cen
| tauri-a brilliant first-magnitude star situ-
| ated so far south as barely to appear above
our horizon-and the next being 81 Cygni.
| a star of only the fifth magnitude in the
| Swan. According to the measures of Drs.
| Gill and Elkin. the distance of Sirius Is
! about 100000 times that of the sun-about
Eine light years" That Is to say light
| which reaches us from the sun in a little
| over eight minutes, and from the moon in
! one and quarter seconds, requires nine
years to flash across the space which inter
| venes between us and the Dog Star. The
sun removed to its distance would dwindle
| to star of the second or third magnitude
The light OF Sirius is blush white. resem-
| bling that OF the electric light. IT is
richer in blue and violet rays than that of
| the sum- which Is classed by astronomers
among the yellow stars. of watch Cape lla
now to be found nearly overhead is fine
example. Contrast the color of Capel'a
with that of Sirius. The spectroscope re-
veals difference in their light equally
| striking. The spectrum of Sirius and those
| of the "Sirian.' white stars. generally
| are strongly marked by three broad lines.
" nd ~ 10 hat he CT
ed by extensive atmospheres, consisting
largely of hydrogen. These stars are doubt
| less intensely hot, as well surprisingly
brilliant. The spectra of the Solar" or
yellow stars, are crossed by multitudee of
| fine lines, as is the solar spectrum, which
! indicate that their atrlospheres are made
| up of the vapors of metals and metaIloids.
| These stars are supposed to be farther adj
| vanced in world-iife than the hotter Srian
stars.
| CAMS Minor.
| The bright star seen at the right of Sir
| ius, and nearly in the east, is Procyon tho
| Smaller Dog-Canis Minor, Sirius being
| CAMS Major. According to DR.. Elkin. Pro-
| cyon is distant from us about twelve light
years. and is the nearest of the ter first
| magnitude stars Of the northern hemi-
| sphere.
Orion contains two stars of the first mag
nitude-Betelgeuse pronounced Betel-jeu-
| ze). in the right shoulder, and Rigel Gree
| JED in the left foot. Bellatrix. In the left
| shoulder. and the three stars which form
| the belt-the "Three Kings'-are OF the sec
ond magnitude. Saiph, In the right knee. is
of the third. Note tce difference In color of
/ Betelgeuse and Rigel. The latter is Sir
| ian star: the former is distinctly red. This
! red color, which characterizes many OF the
stars, the most of which below the
fourth magnitude, has commonly been held
| of late years to indicate that these stars
are verging toward extinction as lumi-
n orio thew QeCrepit Sir
Norman Lockyer holds, as a part of his
"meteoritic theory" that not all of them
| are waning suns, but that some of them
and Betelgeuse is one-are only just enter
| ing on their career suns, being at pres
| ent simply dense and condensing shoals of
meteorites. which are clashing and grinding
together under the force of gravity, and
are thus heated to luminosity. Betelgeuse
is. at any rate, body in a physical condi-
| ton quite different from the sun, though
| the spectroscope shows that 1t contains