Evening star., 1898-12-03

the horizon, are the two Guardians of the
Pole'-the two stars in the bowl of the Lit
Tie Upper which correspond in position
WIN the Pointers in the Great Dippar At
the left Of these two stars and somewhat
lower than they may be seen the eyes of
the Dragon. pair Of stars about as bril-
Eant as the Guardians. but wider apart
StiA farther 10 the left and barely above
the horizon is Vega, the brilliant Of tn,
Summer skies. now suppIanted by its rival
Capella, which stands on nearly the on
posite side of the Pole Star high in tn.
northeast. At the left of Vega stands up-
night The Northern Cross-the old cons tella-
ton Cygnus, the Swan. In mid-heavens in
the west is the great Square Of Pegasus.
Facing the south we have before us the
huge but not very conspicuous constella-
ton Cetus, the Whale. line run from
Fomalhaut, the bright star seen low in the
southwest, 10 Aldebarau passes IeugthWise
through the center Of this celestial mon
Ster, and on his line lie the two second
magnitude stars Deueb Kaitas and Mem
kar, which mark respeC lively its tail and
mead Mira, the "wOnderfuI' star in this
constellation, now crosses the meridian at
about O'Clock. nearly midway from the
horizon 10 the zenith. This famous yaria-
BILE star passed It's maximum in October
when IL was about as bright as Menkar
Snd il is now on the wan.
Nearly overhead and just across the
meridian is the CONSPICUOUS Uafr Of stars
which mark the head of Ari-s tn. Ram
Between Aries and Cassiopeia is Andro-
media, her head marked by one uf the cor
ner stars Of the Square of Pegasus and
atr fe-t IN line with the stars i'm the head
II Aries and the Pole Star.
Facing the East
BY far the most brilliant section of the
heavens tonight. at the hour named is the
Il q
seven stars Of tn first magnitud,-one-
half uf Ih~ number ever visible = observ-
-rs in the mean latitude or the United
Sta,oS-aud eight or ten Of the second mag
nltUtf, whil- the Milky Way spriukled
with countless Tiny tWinkl-rs, forms
sp-eEttd getting for this collection Of bril-
ilaIJS- The ipW-rEluSJ star ~ III. seven
situated exactly in the east j. Procyun in
ihc Cams Minor. or Little Dog AT III sans
low altitude. tu the southeast. flashes Sirius
tho glorious Dog star, in the CAMS .Lajor
nine times as bright as an average. star Of
the first magnitude and five tim.s as bright
Vega or CapelIa.
Abova Sirius recliues the m ghty'' Orion,
with Us two hriliiants, EetrIEcuse. In the
right shoulder. ard Rigel. in thc left foot
Thc three stars IN the belt and that I'm tha
left shoulder, Beiiatrix. are Of the second
magnitude.
Abovs Orion is Taurus. tie Bull. con-
tanning the bright star Aidebaran. the
'BLNs Eye and marked, moreover by
the finest two "f the naked-eye star cIus-
tcrs, the Hyades. which form the bulls
idce, and the PIeiades. in his shoulder.
On our left, at a low altitude between east
a;.d northeast, the Twins (Gemini)
or which the upper, Castor. is a bright
secC nd-magnttude star. while Pollux the
lower is commonly Classed as of the first
magnitude. Capella has already been point
cd out In The northeast. This star the
She-eiOat, stands in the left shoulder of
Auriga, the Wagner.
An Interesting Star.
The secOnd-msgnitUde star now situated
directly beneath Cspella is Beta Aurigae
in the WagOner's right shoulder. This
star IS interesting frCm the discovery made
with the spectroscOpe that, though to the
Taktd eye and even through a telescope
It appears no different from other stars
of its magnitude, IL is really a binary star:
that -. it has companion star revolving
around it. Speaking with reference TO this
application OF the spectroscope, Prof. Bar
nard in his recently delivered address on
Celestial Photography. says:
The spectral lines have a normal posi-
uOn only when the object whose light Is
under examination is motionless in the
line Of sight. When II - In motion to us
or from US these lines are displaced from
their normal positions, in the first case
toward the yiOl.t region of the spectrum
and in the other toward the red. This
popularity, besides showing the motions
Of Individual stars. has revealed to us,
through the aid of photography, an en-
uIely new class OF bodies, the so-calIed
spectrOscopic binares. II has been found
that IN the case Of certain stars the lines
are periodically doubled a. short intervals
thus indicating the presence Of two bod
lee, which must be rapidly revolving about
each other. The doubling of ths lines Is
due TO the alternate approach OF one and
the recession Of the other body, which
thus causes displacement OF the two sets
Of spectra, for when the motion Is at right
angles TO the line Of sight (and this must
occur at two points in the orbit the two
spectrG Will be exactly superposed. 1t can
readily be shown from the known periods
of these stars and their enormous distances
that no telescope is likely to be made so
powerful TO show visually their indie
pendent components. The visual double
btar having the shortest p.riod IL one dis