Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-12-22
STARRY WONDERS
The Changing. Drifting. Crum-
bling Consultations.
NOT so PLACID AS THEY SEEM

They Are All In a Whiriing. Restless
Rush, Preparing to Assemble In 9th.
er Format'ons-Wild Flight Earth.
ward OF the Andromeda NebuIa.
That spectacle" said friend OF
mine one night, pointing up to the
starry sky. always overwhelms me-
with sense of unchangeableness."
Yet" | replied, lit is the grundest
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 fash of lightning, the wheel
Of racing auto seems to be motion
less Your whole lifetime is but II
lightning fash against the spinning
wheels of the universe. The entire
history of the world since the tradi
tionaI time of Adam Is but a.iightnin.
fash In the existence of the sidereaI
systems
'They are all in motion. and they ar.
all changing within themselves Look
yonder at that rich part of the MILK.
way. where the millions Of apparent
= crowded stars resemble luminous
clouds. II you could stand watching
those star clouds for a million years
instead Of a few moments they would
shift and roll before your eyes like thu,
whirling vapors Of an advancing thun
derstorm.
1.-THE astronomer arrives at a know
edge of the fluctuations of the universe
by projecting his Imagination back into
the past and forward into the future
He gazes through telescope which
penetrates time instead of space Its
lenses gather together and bend to II
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. as they are seen by the
ancient of days himself.
ut 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; 1t Is no exaggeration to affirm
that the armament of stars would mp
pear to an eye endowed with immortal
vision as restless and as swiftly vari
able us q 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 Tyre
the Whale, the Scorpion. the Scales,
Virgo the Virgin. Hercules the D0er 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 com
pany in the whole sky that mankind
has admired and made legends about
are breaking up. crumhling. 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 1rst
magnitude star In the eye of Taurus
1t is going away from you at speed
Of thirty five miles per second. seventy
times as fast as the swiftest cannon
ball Every successive night it is
100000 miles farther than 1t was
twenty.four hours before. and yet its
distance is so great that 1t has not ap
preciaby diminished in brightness In
thousand years.
"Then Fix your eyes on little star
under the feet of Orion. which astrOnO-
mers call Delta Leporis. 1t Is flying
AWAY from US at the rate OF sixty-tw0
miles per second. That means a re-
treat Of more than 5.25O.OOO miles be
tween one night and the next, and yet
Delta Leporis does not sensibly fade
It is like distant steamers light-sO
far away to begin with that no altera.
ton Of its distance can produce u
change in its apparent magnitude until
the time elapsed begins to bear some
appreciable proportion to the space that
intervenes.
III you will regard another little star
In the Whale. called Eta Cephei. you
will be looking at a projectile as big as
sun. which Is shooting toward US
more than fifty miles second. The
great dog star. Sirius. which crossed
the milky way hundreds Of centuries
before history began. is speeding In our
direction at the rate of fifteen miles a
second. and the little dog star. Procy
ON, is chasing after him with the los
ing stride of ten miles per second.
1.-THE magnificent Arcturus is retiring
into the depths of space with dignified
step--three miles a secOnd-while AL
pha Centaurus. twin star. each of
whose components equals our sun. Is
dra wing a million miles nearer every
twenty four hours. The vast Orion
Nebula is retreating eleven miles sec
ond. but that whirling wonder called
the Andromeda Nebula is rushing hitb
erward 1870 miles second. or more
than 15.OOO.OOO miles per day!
Luckily for US. It has plenty Of sky
room!
IN view Of all this. do the heavens
stilI seem to you so placid and On
changea ble7" - Garrett P. Serviss in
Washington Post