The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-07-06

star in the Herdsman's left shoulder, form an equal-sided triangle, which is one of the landmarks of this region Of the heavens. At the center of this tri- angle stands the star Epsilon Bootis, of the third magnitude, a star which, had we a good four-i inch telescope, we might find to be double star. having close beside 1t a small componion of an olive green color. The star IS here mentioned because of it's reputation among telescope using star gazers as one of the prettiest of the colored dou- bles.
 Arcturus is for several reasons an especially interesting star. It IS, to De- gin with, one of the celestial objects mentioned in the book of Job, according to the authorized version O. the Scrip lures, though scholars are now inclined to think that the Great Dipper is there referred to rather than a single star. It will be noticed that it's color is deep orange. The analysis Of It's light with the spectroscope has shown that It is a body nearly identical, both in com position and in physical condition, with the sun, its spectrum being, according to Sir Norman Lockyer essentially the same as the solar spectrum, so far as it's feebler light permits comparison to be made. Arcturus is undoubtedly, however, a very much larger body than the sun, although as yet all attempts to obtain trustworthy data for determin- ing it's distance, and thus means of estimating it's sze have been unsuc- cessful. pr. Elkin has reached the conclusion, as one result Of an mel fectual attempt to measure It's 'Daral- lax" that the minimum distance which can be assigned to this star is sixty seven Tight years" The sun removed to that distance would become for us a star of the sixth magnitude.
 HERCULES, THE KNEELER.
 This constellation should easily be located. Observe that the head, which is marked by the star Alpha Hercules, variable ranging from the third to fourth magnitude, Is toward the south' and is near that of Ophiuchus-five de- grees west of it. The body Of Her cules. or rather the lower portion of his body, is formed by a trapezium or four third magnitude stars, quite mo- ticeable figure, midway between the Crown and the Tyre. Hercules is In a kneeling posture, each knee and each foot being marked by star Of the fourth magnitude. The figure sketched here can easily be made out, and there can hardly be much doubt that this is the figure seen by the ancient constella- tion makers The old Greek name Of the constellation, the name by which 1t is referred to by Aratus, was Engo- nasin. "On knees" or, as the name IS commonly rendered. The Kneeler. This constellation is interesting as contain | ing the point which Sir William Her schel fixed upon as that toward which the sun, with his family of planets, is travelling through space. Other astron- | omers have located this point-the "apex of the suns way" as 1t is called
 somewhere hereabouts, though no two have fixed upon precisely the same point The latest and most exhaus- tive discussion of all the data available for deciding this question, by Professor Newconib has located the apex about four degrees south of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra. The rate of the suns movement in this di- rection has been calculated to be about one hundred and fifty million miles a year.
 A COMPLICATED PROBLEM.
 How, it may be asked, is it possible
 to tell in what direction the suns is moving through space, or whether, in | deed. it is moving at all? Difficult of solution as the problem Is actually the
 principle involved is one of the most simple and familiar When we move | in any direction all surrounding ob- jects appear to move in the contrary | direction: they seem to move from the
 point toward which we are going and l toward the point directly behind us
 Were the sun the only moving star in | the universe-were all the other stars fixed, like the trees In the forest, and were our conveyance alone in motion there would be little difficulty in determining the direction in which we were going We should need merely to | observe attentively the apparent move ment of the stars-their proper mo- | tions"-as fe might observe that of the | trees of a forest through which we were passing, and, knowing the appearance | to be deceptive, we would judge of the direction of our own movement accord ingly. But since the stars are them- selves travelling In all directions, the actual problem is a complicated one. It is only after making a sort of gene ral average of the directions that we can reach some conclusion as to the di rection in which we ourselves are go- ing. Herschel found that the general drift of the stars-the excess of their proper motions-was toward a point about twenty degrees southwest of the star Sirius and from the point in Her cules above noted; hence his conclu- sion that it was toward this point that the sun was moving.
 A HYPOTHETICAL CENTRAL SUN.
 It was once held by many astrono- mers to be probobe that the stars are arranged on the same general plan as are the bodies which constitute the so- lar system, that they are moving around a central sun or, perhaps, around dark, invisible controlling body.
 The only astronomer who has enter tained this view in recent times, how erer, was Maedler, who went so far as to fix upon the star Alcyone, the brightest star of the Pleiades, as prob ably the great central body about which revolved all the other stars, the sun included.
 Maedler's view has been widely pub- lished in popular books on astronomy