Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-08-17
oQLoREn suns.

We are SO familiar with the light of
our sun, says Dorothy Leonard in St.
Nicholas, that it is hard for us to real
ize that there are In the universe
number Of suns which shine with blue,
green, purple, yellow, or red light.
These colors are noticed when we ex-
anime them through the telescope.
When we look atSthe heavens on
clear night we SEQ u great many stars,
more than we can possibly count; and
all these, except the planets, are great,
glorious suns, some of them many times
larger than our. own. Most of them
shine with white light, like ours; but
yet there are a good many which
viewed through the telescope, are found
to be of various brilliant hues. The
most striking and beautiful effects in
coloring are met with In what are
called the double stars. There are
stars which appear singlesto u.s., ON
account of their extreme distance, but
on examination, are found to consist OF
two or more stars comparatively near
together; and when one or both of
pair are colored, they are, of course,
exceedingly beautiful. In the constel.
lation called the Southern Cross, one
astronomer discovered group, too far
away or too small to be seen with the
naked eye, which appeared to him like
an elaborate piece Of jewelry! For,
among number of the ordinary stars.
were five green, one greenish blue, and
two beautiful red ones. In one of our
northern consultations there is large
white star accompanied by one of a
rich purple hue; in another a triple
star consisting Of an orange.red sun,
with two companions of bright
emerald green; while in another q
double star has large orange sun with
small blue mate.
Among the single stars, some of the
brightest (which are famous enough to
have old Arabian names-giren them
decided color For instance, Sirius is
blush white; SO also are Affair, Deneh,
and Vega; Arcturus is red; Capella is
blue; and Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, and
Antares shine with bright red beams.
If any or all of these stars have
planets circIing around them, as the
earth and other planets revolve around
| our sun, the coloring must be brilliant
indeed! In planets revolving around
| the double suns we can imagine almost
| anything. One sun might rise in
Grange, green, or blue, while another
set in red or purple, and at times the
two suns might mingle their beams, a
red sun with blue sun giving purple
light for part of the day, or blue sun
and yellow sun giving green light.
| Changes have also been noticet! in
some of tho colored stars; for we have
ancient records OF Sirius being de-
cided red, later it was white, while
now it is blush white. Another star,
now blue, changed from red to yellow
before it reached its present color. II
is generally believed that 1T is some
condition of tho atmosphere around
these stars that causes the coloring
that is, red star has an atmosphere
that ahsorbs all the rays Of light ex.
cept the red rays, blue an atmosphere
that absorbs all but the blue rays; but
how, or why it is so, or why tho colors
should sometimes change, We do moi
know. We know enough, however, tc
show us that more wonderful things
exist in the universe, and more won
derful changes occur, than We coulc
possibly imagine.