, 1908-12-23
THE AVIS.
Wednesday, 23rd December, 1903.
As this is our last issue before Christmas
Day, we wish for all Che readers OF this paper
A MERRY CHRISTMAS.

stretching from Ro0ut northwest 90 Soutn-
east rises about sunset. some OF 1t earlier,
and by min o'clock is sufficiently high
in tho sky to reveal it's whole beauty. This
is true Lot only of Santa Cruz but OF most
parts of tho world. since the starry heavens
appear to evolve with the sun. and their
times are therefore, within q couple of min
uIes, independent of longitude.
The chisf star group. or constellation. Ia
thus band ia the glorious Orion, the great
hunter, wh> will be recognized by many
who look at him with admiration from year
10 year; there ars the four bright stars
which mark the positions of his knses and
shoulders, then the three stars in a cross
line which place his belt, and lastly the shin
ing dagger which is seen 20 depend from
the latter. Behind Orion comes his faithful
dog, a fne constellation known as The
greater dog. Of which Sirius. the famous dog
star, the brightest star in the whole sky, ls
the most conspicuous.
To the north west of Orion lie the fine group,
The BuU, in which is a conspicuous cluster
resembling a Y t1r9ed upside down aud
having at the end of it's southern arm the
Lne star At9ebar0n. Northwest again OF this
comes the star cluster known to almost all.
the Phsiodes, the seven sisters, or the bunch
of keys, as they are v~ariously called.
Other consultations .of less brilliance
are seen to the north and to the south
ot those above mehtioned. 1t is well
to direct the attention of young peo-
pie to these star groups. for If they
recognize the forms as the same, year after
year, they will understand the meaning OF
che name 'fred starr. especially if when
opportunity occurs they are shown the most
conspicuous of the planets 0he wanderers) and
m~n Id kn uofica fhof f,oy lo NOT Eoon tha QAma Q
positions in the sky, for example Venus was
last year at this time q brilliant star in the
west, but we do not see her there now.
Even NAL children perceive the beauty
of tue stars if their attention is called ito it.
Everybody perhaps knows the story OF tbs
little girl, who, beng asked what she
thought about the stars. replied that they
were pin holes in the sky to let the glory
through. Beautiful thought, infinitely far
from the natural truth and yet near Indeed
80 it when we COINS to know a little of the
real glory of the vast e5panse into which
we peer and the true nature of those count.
less brilliant diamonds flashing there.
For what do the astronomers tell us about
those apparently small twinkling stars ?
First of all they tell Us that they are inn
Lien sely distant, 80 distant that the spaces
between them measure Dc same, from
whatever part of the earth's ~surfaos we
view them ; not on. e, but thai eNea
when seen from differeIk. points in tho
earth's path round thu SUM-. a. path
which shuts in q space 1oQ millions Of
miles in wfdtA, there is scarcely any percep-
tible difference, so minute difference that
only the very finest @of the astronomers
measuring Instruments Gan detect it,and they
can do that for only a few Stars, of whose
distances we con thus come to form some
faint IDEA.
If so vastly distant they must, to be
SEN at all, be IN yeality immensely large,
and 50 they are ; for the astronomers
tell us that even the Unrest of them is a
great sun, and that many Of them must
bat least equal to. and some very much larger
tEan, our own glorloGs sun, himsek SO great
that it would take a million OF bodies OF the
t3ze of this fine globe on which we live, to
make one equal to him.
What then shall we say on a star-cluster
like thu Pleisdes ? The"seven sisters we see
there, if they are all great suns, must be g-
gantlc sisters indeed, aud although they look
so near they must be at distances from each
other SO great that we cannot even conceive
of them. And are there only seven?
Some people with keen eyes can count more,
and when a good telescope is brought to
Dsar on tnem, their number 10 seen to be
wonderfully increased, till, with the aid OF
the finest instruments, the astronomers can
count several thousands of stars in that one
cluster and its immediate neighbourhood.
Curiosity is natural to us all. When we
read OF these wonderful things in the vast
space AROUND us. We are tempted to ask
What is beyond? Let US go on and on in
thought till we reach one of those suhs on the
farther side of the Pleiades. aud perhaps
fnd there, travelling around him, q set Of
planets like those of our own sun, and on one
of these we land and we look out as we now