constellations are most enjoyable. But these are not the only times when
you can see them. (If you had that seventy-five-cent planisphere, now,
you could always tell which constellations are visible and just where to
find them.) No matter what time of year you read this chapter, it is
worth while to go out and look for these marvels. You can't possibly
miss them all.
Have you ever seen a Sickle in the sky? It's a beauty, and whenever I
have seen it it has been turned very conveniently for me, because I am
left-handed. It is so easy to find that I am almost ashamed to tell. But
if you need help, draw a line through the Pointers backward, away from
the Pole star, about forty degrees, and it will come a little west of
the Sickle. The Sickle is only part of the Lion--the head and the
forequarters. Only fanciful map-makers can trace the rest of the Lion.
The bright star at the end of the handle is Regulus, which means "king,"
from the stupid old notion that this star ruled the lives of men. To
this day people speak of the "Royal Star," meaning Regulus. And at the
end of this chapter I will tell you about three other stars which the
Persians called "royal stars."
Another constellation which children particularly love is the
Twins--Castor and Pollux. But the sailors got there first! For thousands
of years the twins have been supposed to bring good luck to sailors. I
don't believe a word of it. But I do know that sailors gloat over Castor
and Pollux, and like them better than any other stars. The whole
constellation includes all the stars east of the Bull and between the
Charioteer and Procyon. But another way to outline the twins is to look
northeast of Orion where you will see two rows of stars that run nearly
parallel. To me the brothers seem to be standing, but all the old
picture-makers show them sitting with their arms around each other, the
two brightest stars being their eyes. The eyes are about five degrees
apart--the same as the Pointers.
Pollux is now brighter than Castor, but for thousands of years it was
just the other way. It is only within three hundred years that this
change has taken place. Whether Castor has faded or Pollux brightened,
or both, I do not know. Anyhow, Castor is not quite bright enough to be
a first magnitude star. Three hundred years is a short time in the
history of man, and only a speck in the history of the stars. Three
hundred years ago they killed people in Europe just because of the
church they went to. That was why the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from
England in 1620, and made the first permanent settlement in America,
except, of course, Jamestown, Va., in 1607.
There are plenty of stories about old Castor and Pollux, and, like all
the other myths, they conflict, more or less. But all agree that these
two brothers went with Jason in the ship Argo, shared his adventures and
helped him get the golden fleece. And all agree that Castor and Pollux
were "born fighters." And that is why the Roman soldiers looked up to
these stars and prayed to them to help them win their battles.
Now for the four summer constellations every one ought to know. The
first thing to look for is two famous red or reddish stars--Arcturus and
Antares.
The way you find Arcturus is amusing. Look for the Big Dipper and find
the star at the bottom of the dipper nearest the handle. Got it? Now
draw a curve that will connect it with all the stars in the handle, and
when you come to the end of the handle keep on till you come to the
first very bright star--about twenty-five degrees. That is the monstrous
star Arcturus, probably the biggest and swiftest star we can ever see
with the naked eye in the northern hemisphere. He is several times as
big as our sun, and his diameter is supposed to be several million
miles. He is called a "runaway sun," because he is rushing through space
at the rate of between two hundred and three hundred miles a second.
That means between seventeen and thirty-four million miles a day!
He is coming toward us, too! At such a rate you might think that
Arcturus would have smashed the earth to pieces long ago. But he is
still very far away, and there is no danger. Some people say that if Job
were to come to life, the sky would seem just the same to him as it did
3,400 years ago. The only difference he might notice would be in
Arcturus. That would seem to him out of place by a distance about three
times the apparent diameter of the moon.
Some people believe this because Job said, "Canst thou guide Arcturus
with his sons?" and therefore they imagine that he meant this red star.
But I believe he meant the Big Dipper. For in King James's time, when
the Bible was translated into English, the word "Arcturus" meant the Big
Dipper or rather the Great Bear. And for centuries before it meant the
Great Bear. One proof of it is that "Arcturus" comes from an old Greek
word meaning "bear"--the same word from which we get arctic. It is only
within a few hundred years that astronomers have agreed to call the
Great Bear "Ursa Major," and this red star Arcturus. So I think all the
books which say Job mentioned this red star are mistaken. I believe
Webster's Dictionary is correct in this matter, and I believe the
Revised Version translates Job's Hebrew phrase more correctly when it
says, "Canst thou guide the Bear with her train?"
Anyhow, Arcturus is a splendid star--the brightest in the constellation
called the "Herdsman" or Booetes. It is not worth while to trace the
Herdsman, but here is an interesting question. Is Arcturus really red?
The books mostly say he is yellow. They say he looks red when he is low
in the sky, and yellow when he is high. How does he look to you? More
yellow than red?
Well, there's no doubt about Antares being red. To find him, draw a long
line from Regulus through Arcturus to Antares, Arcturus being more than
half way between the other two. But if Regulus and the Sickle are not
visible, draw a line from Altair, at right angles to the Eagle, until
you come to a bright star about sixty degrees away. You can't miss
Antares, for he is the only red star in that part of the sky.
Antares belongs to a showy constellation called the Scorpion. I cannot
trace all the outline of a spider-like creature, but his poisonous tail
or "stinger" is made by a curved line of stars south and east of
Antares. And you can make a pretty fan by joining Antares to several
stars in a curve which are west of Antares and a little north. There is
an old tale that this Scorpion is the one that stung Orion to death when
he began to "show off" and boast that there was no animal in the world
that could kill him.
Another very bright star in the southern part of the sky is Spica. To
find it, start with the handle of the Dipper, and making the same
backward curve which helped you to find Arcturus, keep on till you come
to the white star Spica--say thirty degrees beyond Arcturus. This is the
brightest star in the constellation called "the Virgin." It is not worth
while trying to trace her among nearly forty faint stars in this
neighbourhood. But she is supposed to be a winged goddess who holds up
in her right hand an _ear of wheat_, and that is what Spica means.
Now for an autumn constellation--the Southern Fish. I don't care if you
fail to outline a fish, but I do want you to see the bright star that is
supposed to be in the fish's mouth. And I don't want you to balk at its
hard name--Fomalhaut (pronounced _fo'-mal-o_). It is worth a lot of
trouble to know it as a friend. To find it, you have to draw an
exceedingly long line two-thirds of the way across the whole sky. Start
with the Pointers. Draw a line through them and the Pole star and keep
clear on until you come to a solitary bright star rather low down in the
south. That is Fomalhaut. It looks lonely and is lonely, even when you
look at it through a telescope.
And now for the last story. Once upon a time the Persians thought there
must be four stars that rule the lives of men. So they picked out one in
the north and one in the south and one in the east and one in the west,
just as if they were looking for four bright stars to mark the points of
the compass. If you want to find them yourself without my help don't
read the next sentence, but shut this book and go out and see. Then
write down on a piece of paper the stars you have selected and compare
them with the list I am about to give. Here are the four royal stars of
the Persians: Fomalhaut for the north, Regulus for the south, Aldebaran
for the east, and Antares for the west.
Why doesn't this list agree with yours? Because Persia is so far south
of where we live. Ah, there are very few things that are absolutely
true. Let's remember that and not be too sure: for everything depends
upon the point of view! I hope you will see Fomalhaut before Christmas,
before he disappears in the west. He is with us only five months and is
always low--near the horizon. But the other seven months in the year he
gladdens the children of South America and the rest of the southern
hemisphere, for they see him sweeping high and lonely far up into their
sky and down again.
But the loveliest of all the constellations described in this chapter is
the Northern Crown. It is not a perfect crown--only about half a
circle--but enough to suggest a complete ring. Look for it east of
Arcturus. I can see seven or eight stars in the half-circle, one of
which is brighter than all the others. That one is called "the Pearl."
The whole constellation is only fifteen degrees long, but "fine things
come in small packages"; and children grow to love the Northern Crown
almost as much as they love the Pleiades.
THE TWENTY BRIGHTEST STARS
If you have seen everything I have described so far, you have reason to
be happy. For now you know sixteen of the most famous constellations and
fifteen of the twenty brightest stars. There are only twenty stars of
the first magnitude. "Magnitude" ought to mean size, but it doesn't. It
means brightness--or rather the apparent brightness--of the stars when
seen by us. The word magnitude was used in the old days before
telescopes, when people thought the brighter a star is the bigger it
must be. Now we know that the nearer a star is to us the brighter it is,
and the farther away the fainter. Some of the bright stars are
comparatively near us, some are very far. Deneb and Canopus are so far
away that it takes over three hundred years for their light to reach us.
What whoppers they must be--many times as big as our sun.
Here is a full list of the twenty stars of the first magnitude arranged
in the order of their brightness. You will find this table very useful.
----------------+---------------+-------------+--------------------------
Stars | Pronounced |Constellation| Interesting facts
----------------+---------------+-------------+--------------------------
Sirius | _sir'i-us_ | Big Dog | Brightest star. Nearest
| | | star visible in Northern
| | | hemisphere
Canopus* | _ca-no'pus_ | Ship Argo | Perhaps the largest body
| | | in universe
Alpha Centauri* | _al'fa | |
| sen-taw're_ | Centaur | Nearest star. Light four
| | | years away
Vega | _ve'ga_ | Lyre | Brightest star in the
| | | Northern sky. Bluish
Capella | _ca-pell'a_ | Charioteer | Rivals Vega, but opposite
| | | the pole. Yellowish
Arcturus | _ark-tu'rus_ | Herdsman | Swiftest of the bright
| | | stars. 200 miles a second
Rigel | _re'jel_ | Orion | Brightest star in Orion.
| | | White star in left foot
Procyon | _pro'si-on_ | Little Dog | Before the dog. Rises a
| | | little before Sirius
Achernar* | _a-ker'nar_ | River Po | Means the end of the river
Beta Centauri* | _ba'ta | |
| sen-taw're_ | Centaur | This and its mate point to
| | | the Southern Cross
Altair | _al-tare'_ | Eagle | Helps you find Vega and
| | | Northern Cross
Betelgeuse | _bet-el-guz'_ | Orion | Means "armpit." The red
| | | star in the right shoulder
Alpha Crucis* | _al'fa | Southern |
| cru'sis_ | Cross | At the base of the most
| | | famous Southern
| | | constellation
Aldebaran | _al-deb'a-ran_| Bull | The red eye in the V
Pollux | _pol'lux_ | Twins | Brighter than Castor
Spica | _spi'ca_ | Virgin | Means ear of wheat
Antares | _an-ta'rez_ | Scorpion | Red star. Name means
| | | "looks like Mars"
Fomalhaut | _fo'mal-o_ | Southern |
| | Fish | The lonely star in the
| | | Southern sky
Deneb | _den'eb_ | Swan | Top of Northern Cross,
| | | or tail of Swan
Regulus | _reg'u-lus_ | Lion | The end of the handle
| | | of the Sickle
----------------+---------------+-------------+--------------------------
The five stars marked * belong to the Southern hemisphere, and we can
never see them unless we travel far south. Last winter I went to Florida
and saw Canopus, but to see the Southern Cross you should cross the
Tropic of Cancer.
HOW TO LEARN MORE
All I can hope to do in this book is to get you enthusiastic about
astronomy. I don't mean "gushy." Look in the dictionary and you will
find that the enthusiast is not the faddist. He is the one who sticks to
a subject for a lifetime.
Nor do I care a rap whether you become an astronomer--or even buy a
telescope. There will be always astronomers coming on, but there are too
few people who know and love even a few of the stars. I want you to make
popular astronomy a life-long hobby. Perhaps you may have to drop it for
ten or fifteen years. Never mind, you will take up the study again. I
can't expect you to read a book on stars if you are fighting to make a
living or support a family, unless it really rests you to read about the
stars. It does rest me. When things go wrong at the office or at home, I
can generally find rest and comfort from music. And if the sky is clear,
I can look at the stars, and my cares suddenly seem small and drop away.
Let me tell you why and how you can get the very best the stars have to
teach you, without mathematics or telescope. Follow this programme and
you need never be afraid of hard work, or of exhausting the pleasures
of the subject. Go to your public library and get one of the books I
recommend in this chapter, and read whatever interests you. I don't care
whether you take up planets before comets or comets before planets, but
whatever you do do it well. Soak the interesting facts right in. Nail
them down. See everything the book talks about. Make notes of things to
watch for. Get a little blank book and write down the date you first saw
each thing of interest. Write down the names of the constellations you
love most. Before you lay down any star book you are reading, jot down
the most wonderful and inspiring thing you have read--even if you have
only time to write a single word that may recall it all to you. Treasure
that little note book as long as you live. Every year it will get more
precious to you.
Now for the books:
1. _Martin._ _The Friendly Stars._ Harper & Brothers, New York, 1907.
This book teaches you first the twenty brightest stars and then the
constellations. I cannot say that this, or any other, is the "best
book," but it has helped me most, and I suppose it is only natural that
we should love best the first book that introduces us to a delightful
subject.
2. _Serviss._ _Astronomy with the Naked Eye._ Harper & Brothers, New
York, 1908.
This teaches you the constellations first and the brightest stars
incidentally. Also it gives the old myths.
3. _Serviss._ _Astronomy with an Opera-Glass._ D. Appleton & Co., New
York, 1906.
4. _Serviss._ _Pleasures of the Telescope._ D. Appleton & Co., New York,
1905.
5. _Milham._ _How to Identify the Stars._ The Macmillan Co., New York,
1909.
This gives a list of eighty-eight constellations, including thirty-six
southern ones, and has tracings of twenty-eight.
6. _Elson._ _Star Gazer's Handbook._ Sturgis & Walton Co., New York,
1909.
About the briefest and cheapest. Has good charts and makes a specialty
of the myths.
7. _Serviss._ _Curiosities of the Sky._ Harper & Brothers, New York.
Tells about comets, asteroids, shooting stars, life on Mars, nebulae,
temporary stars, coal-sacks, Milky Way, and other wonders.
8. _Ball._ _Starland._ Ginn & Co., Boston, New York, etc., 1899.
This tells about a great many interesting experiments in astronomy that
children can make.
* * * * *
If I had only a dollar or less to spend on astronomy I should buy a
planisphere. I got mine from Thomas Whittaker, No. 2 Bible House, New
York. It cost seventy-five cents, and will tell you where to find any
star at any time in the year. It does not show the planets, however. A
planisphere that will show the planets costs about five dollars.
However, there are only two very showy planets, viz., Venus and Jupiter.
Any almanac will tell you (for nothing) when each of these is morning
star, and when each of them is evening star.
The best newspaper about stars, as far as I know, is a magazine called
_The Monthly Evening Sky Map_, published by Leon Barritt, 150 Nassau
St., New York. It costs a dollar a year. It gives a chart every month,
showing all the planets, and all the constellations. Also it tells you
about the interesting things, like comets, before they come.
Good-bye. I hope you will never cease to learn about and love the earth
and the sky. Perhaps you think you have learned a great deal already.
But your pleasures have only begun. Wait till you learn about how the
world began, the sun and all his planets, the distances between the
stars, and the millions of blazing suns amid the Milky Way!
THE END
[Illustration: THE SKY IN WINTER]
NOTE.--These simplified star maps are not as accurate as a planisphere,
but they may be easier for children. All star maps are like ordinary
maps, except that east and west are transposed. The reason for this is
that you can hold a star map over your head, with the pole star toward
the north, and the map will then match the sky. These maps contain some
constellations that are only for grown-ups to study. The Winter
constellations every child should know are:
AURIGA, the Charioteer
CANIS MAJOR, the Big Dog
CANIS MINOR, the Little Dog
CASSIOPEIA, the Queen in Her Chair
CYGNUS, the Swan
LEO, the Lion
ORION, the Hunter
PERSEUS, Which Has the Arc
TAURUS, the Bull
URSA MAJOR, the Great Bear
URSA MINOR, the Little Bear
[Illustration: THE SKY IN SPRING]
NOTE.--Once upon a time all the educated people spoke Latin. It was the
nearest approach to a universal language. So most of the constellations
have Latin names. The English, French and German names are all
different, but if all children would learn the Latin names they could
understand one another. The Spring constellations every child should
know are:
LEO, the Lion
LYRA, the Lyre
CASSIOPEIA, the Queen in her Chair
SCORPIO, the Scorpion
URSA MAJOR, the Great Bear
URSA MINOR, the Little Bear
VIRGO, the Virgin
[Illustration: THE SKY IN SUMMER]
NOTE.--Every sky map is good for three months, in this way: If this is
correct on June 1st at 10 P.M., it will be correct July 1st at 8 P.M.,
and August 1st at 6 P.M. This is because the stars rise four minutes
earlier every night. Thus, after thirty days, any star will rise thirty
times four minutes earlier, or 120 minutes, or two hours. Children need
not learn all the Summer constellations. The most interesting are:
AURIGA, the Charioteer
CANIS MAJOR, the Big Dog
CYGNUS, the Swan
LYRA, the Lyre
SCORPIO, the Scorpion
[Illustration: THE SKY IN AUTUMN]
NOTE.--This book tells how to find all the most interesting stars and
constellations without maps, but many people prefer them. How to use
star maps is explained under "The Sky in Winter." The Autumn
constellations most interesting to children are:
AQUILA, the Eagle
AURIGA, the Charioteer
CASSIOPEIA, the Queen in Her Chair
CYGNUS, the Swan
LYRA, the Lyre
PERSEUS, Which Has the Arc
TAURUS, the Bull
URSA MAJOR, the Great Bear
URSA MINOR, the Little Bear
Transcriber's notes
Page 124 "streams, runing" corrected to "streams, running"
Page 127 "where he globe" corrected to "where the globe"
Page 138 "ceatures to prove" corrected to "creatures to prove"
Page 216 "this consellation is" corrected to "this constellation is"
Page 203 "Everybirth day" corrected to "Every birthday"