The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1914-12-07

or Formstiens-Wild Flight Earth
ward of the Andremeda Nehuia.
THAT spectacle said ! friend 81
mine one night. pointing up to the
STARR SKY. always oyerwhelms me
with a sense Of unchangeableness.
Yet [ replied. 1T is the grandesf
type OF continual aud stupendous
change that the Imagination could pos
sibly conceive. Its apparent unehanGe-
ableness is that OF a distant landscape.
Seen by fash Of lightning, the wheel
OF q racing auto seems to be notion
less Your whole lifetime is but
lightning dash against the spinning
wheels OF the universe. The entire
history OF the world since the usdi-
tional time Of Adam is but lightning
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
~ crowded stars resemble luminous
| clouds. II you could stand watching
| those star clouds for u million years
instead OF a few moments they would
shift and roll before your eyes like the
whlrling vapors Of an advancing thun.
derstorm.
''rhe astronomer arrives az knowl-
edge of the fluctuations Of the universe
by projecting his Imagination back into
| the past and forward into the future.
| He gaZes through a telescope which
penetrates time instead Of space. Its
lenses gather together ana 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
| Ia the mass. as 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 eve 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 10 affirm
that the armament OF stars would ap.
| pear to an eye endowed with immortal
vision as restless and as swiftly varl-
able rs a winter storm sky filed with
eddying flakes
"Ursa Major. the Great Bear. Leo
the Lion. Taurus the charging Ball,
| orion the mighty Hunter, the Southern
| Cross. the Northern Crown. the Tyre.
the Whale. the Scorpion, the Scales.
Virgo the Virgin. Hercules the Door 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 manEind
has admired and made legends about.
are breaking up, crumbliBs, 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 nrst
MAGNITUDE star IN the eye Of Taurus.
| II Is going away from you at a speed
of thirty-aee miles per second, seventy
times rs fast as the swiftest cannon
bali Every successive night IL is
100000 miles farther than il was
twenty-four hours before, and yet ifs
distance is so great that It has not APP
| preciably diminished in brightness IN
a thousand years.
Then fix your ewes on little star
under the feet Of orion, which asrono-
mers call Delta Leporis IL IS dying
away from us at the rate OF siNty-two
miles per second. That means n re
treat Of more than 5.2500O0 miles be
tween one night and the next. and yet
DeltR Leporis does not scnslb,y fade.
Il Is like q distant steamer light-sO
far sway 10 begin With that no altern-
ton OF It's distance can produce a
change in its apparent magnitude until
the time elapsed begins TO bear some
appreciabie proportion TO the space that
inter- enes
IF you viii regard another little star
in the Whale. called Eta CepheL you
viii be looking at a projecale rs biz az
sun. which Is shooting toward Us
more than fifty miles a second. The
great dog star. Sirius, which crossed
the milky way hundreds OF centuries
before history began. IL speeding in our
direction &C the rate Of fifteen miles
second. and the little dog star. Procy-
on. L. chasing after him with the los
ing stride II ten miles per second.
The magnificent Arcturus Is retiring
Into the depths Of space with dignified
step-three miles . second while Al
pha Centaurus. twin star. each Of
whose compOnents equals our sun. IS
drawing a million miles nearer every
twenty four hours. The vast Orion
Nehula Is retreating eleven miles "A sec
ond but that whirling wonder called
The Andromeda Nebula Is rushing hitb-
crwarl isO miles a second. or more
than 15OoO.OcO miles per day.
Luckily for Us. il has plenty OF sky
room,