The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1914-12-08
STARRY WONDERS
The Changing. Drifting, Crum-
bling Consultations.
NOT so PLACID AS THEY SEEM

They Are Al In a Whirling, Restless
Rush, Preparing to Assemble In 9th
or Formations--Wild Flight Earth
ward Of the Andromeda Nebula.
THAT spectacle" said a friend of
mine one night, pointing up to the
starry sky, always overwhelms me
with sense of unchangeabeness."
yet" l replied. 1T is the grandest
| type of continual and stupendous
change that the imagination could pos
sibly conceive. Its apparent unchange-
ableness is that of a distant landscape.
Seen by flash of lightning, the wheel
of a racing auto seems to be motion
less. Your whole lifetime is but a
lightning flash against the spinning
wheels of the universe. The entire
history of the world since the tradi-
tional time of Adam is but lightning
fash In the existence Of the sidereal
systems.
"They are all in motion, and they are
all changing within themselves. Look
yonder at that rich part Of the Milky
way, where the millions of apparent
ly crowded stars resemble luminous
clouds. II you could stand watching
those star clouds for a million years
instead of n few moments they would
shift and roll before your eyes like the
whirling vapors of an advancing thun-
derstorm.
1.-THE astronomer arrives at knowl-
edge Of the fluctuations Of the universe
by projecting his imagination back into
the past and forward into tho future
He gazes through a telescope which
penetrates time instead of space. Its
lenses gather together and bend to a
focus beams of ages instead of rays Of
light. With its aid he sweeps all past
and coming aeons into the field of his
mental vision and strives to view them
in the mass. ms they are seen by the
ancient of days himself.
1T Is In this way that we know that
all these brilliant consultations, which
to the eye of the casual locker have
not altered their outlines since record
ed history began. are in reality as
mutable and ephemeral as so many
swarms Of snow crystals.
Yes; it is no exaggeration to affirm
that the armament of stars would ap-
pear to an eye endowed with immortal
vision as restless and as swiftly vari-
able as winter storm sky filed with
eddying fakes.
"Ursa Major, the Great Bear, Leo
the Lion. Taurus the charging Bull,
Orion the mighty Hunter, the Southern
Cross. the Northern Crown, the Lyre,
the Whale. the Scorpion. the Scales,
Virgo the Virgin. Hercules the DOer of
Deeds, Draco the Great Dragon. Ophi-
uchus the Serpent Bearer. the whole
refulgent cycle Of the zodiac from
Aries round to Pisces. all these, with.
out exception. and every starry CON-
pany In the whole sky that mankind
hns admired and made legends about
are breaking up. crumbling drifting
asunder and preparing to assemble in
other formations, like the new heaven
that is to shine upon the new earth OF
the Apocalypse.
Look up at Aldebaran, the red first
magnitude star in the eye of Taurus.
1t Is going away from you at speed
of thirty-fve miles per second, seventy
times as fast as the swiftest cannon
ball. Every successive night 1t Is
100000 miles farther than 1t was
twenty four hours before, and yet Its
distance Is SO great that It has not ap
preciably diminished In brightness ir
thousand years.
''Then fix your eyes on little staI
under the feet of Orion. which astrOnO
mers call Delta Lep0ris. 1t Ia flying
away from us at the rate Of sixty-twt
miles per second. That means re
treat of more than 5.250,O00 miles be
tween one night and the next, and ye,
Delta Lepors does not sensibly fade
1t is like a distant steamers light---st
fur away to begin with that no altera
tion Of its distance can produce q
change in its apparent magnitude unit
the time elapsed begins to bear som,
appreciable proportion to the space tina
intervenes.
''If you will regard another little stal
In the Whale. called Eta Cephei. yol
, will be looking at projectile as big al
sun. which is shooting toward us
more than fifty miles second. Th'
great dog star Sirius. which crossed
the milky way hundreds of centurie!
before history began, is speeding In oul
, direction at the rate Of fifteen miles ,
second, and the little dog star. Procy
ON Is chasing after him with the los
ing stride of ten miles per second.
"The magnificent Arcturus is retiring
into the depths Of space with digniAet
step-three miles second while al
PIN Centaurus, a twin star. each o
: whose components equals our sun, 4
: drawing million miles nearer ever!
twenty four hours. The vast Oriol
: Nebula Is retreating eleven miles q sec
ond but that whirling wonder caIlel