triangle under _Andromeda's_ feet. When Paul had made the chalk dots and
lines for _Aries'_ skeleton, Uncle Henry drew the outline around them
and the ram looked like this. You will see that in order to show _Aries_
right side up, the blackboard had to be turned so that _Andromeda_ was
upside down.
"While we are in the neighborhood of _Pegasus_ and _Andromeda_ and
_Aries_ the Ram we may as well find the two fishes. One of them, called
the _Northern Fish_, lies just about halfway between _Andromeda's_ body
and _Aries_--and the other, called the _Western Fish_, lies just back of
_Pegasus'_ box stall, quite close to the water jar of _Aquarius_. (29)
[Illustration]
"The two fishes are tied together by their tails. The cord or ribbon
runs eastward from the tail of the _Western Fish_, running about
parallel to the side of _Pegasus'_ stall, and then makes a sharp angle,
coming back toward _Andromeda_, where it is fastened to the _Northern
Fish's_ tail."
When _Pisces_, or "The Fishes" were found and drawn with chalk they were
in this relation to _Pegasus_, _Andromeda_, _Aries_, and _Aquarius'_
Jar.
[Illustration]
"While I think of it," said Uncle Henry, "I want to tell you that
sometimes you may find a very bright star in a constellation where it
doesn't seem to belong. If you watch it for a few nights you will see
that it moves. It isn't a star at all, but a _planet_ or "wanderer."
Sometime I'll show you how to know all the planets by sight and name.
You will never see them except in the zodiac constellations, so they
need not confuse you. And now I think all of us had better go downstairs
and get warm before we go to bed. Besides, we want to leave a little to
do to-morrow night, and there are only two constellations left now."
"Only two?" cried the children in disappointment.
"Only two that we can see well," assured Uncle Henry.
"Well," said Peter, "I guess we'd better have the Society adjourn. I
move we adjourn."
"Second the motion," said Paul, with true parliamentary solemnity.
"Carried," murmured Betty, who was beginning to get sleepy in spite of
herself.
THIRD WINTER EVENING
THE SKY CLOUDED OVER, BUT PETER FOUND THE STAR PEOPLE HIDING IN
THE ALMANAC--PAUL FOUND HIS HEAD WAS THE WORLD--AND THE
"SOCIETY" FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SWASTIKA AND THE ZODIAC, AND
HOW YOU TELL WHEN A DIPPER IS A PLOUGH AND WHEN IT'S A WAGON
Next evening Peter and Paul carried the blackboard to the roof after
supper, but soon returned in disappointment. The sky had all clouded
over! The evening's session of the "Society of Star-Gazers" was spoiled.
Its members stood in a circle about Uncle Henry and looked hopefully at
him. Never yet had he failed to make good in an emergency.
"Well, it can't be helped," said Uncle Henry cheerfully. "We'll just
have to bring Starland down here into our playroom for this evening.
Suppose you get me--let's see--about a dozen sheets of paper from a big
scratch pad, some of Betty's colored crayons--they had better be the
dark-colored ones--and a good-sized sheet of stiff cardboard or Bristol
board. Yes, and some pins and an Almanac. Betty'll get the colored
pencils, Paul the cardboard, and Peter the sheets of paper and the pins.
I'll borrow the Almanac from Katy. She has one in the kitchen."
The children scattered for the materials and Uncle Henry took the shade
off the electric lamp that stood on the playroom table.
When everybody was back in the playroom with the things needed the
Society gathered around Uncle Henry and asked,
"Where do we go from here, Uncle Hen?"
"Out into Starland," said Uncle Henry, spreading out his arms wide.
"This room is the universe. This lamp with the shade off is the sun.
Imagine that the pictures on the walls are groups of stars, the
constellations, the star-people we have been finding in the sky right
along. Imagine that there are pictures on the ceiling, too, and on the
floor. Lots of them, all over the six sides of this square room.
"Now Paul, you have a nice round head and have just had a hair-cut. Your
head can be the earth. Just walk around the table once or twice until we
get used to thinking about your head as the world. It seems rather small
at first. That's right. Now you're going around the sun the way the
earth does, from right to left, just opposite to the way the clock-hands
go. You go once around the sun every year.
"The earth of course spins on its axis, too, just like a top, while it
is circling round the sun. It turns round completely every twenty-four
hours, from West to East. Paul, see if you can spin like a top while you
are going round the lamp. Spin from right to left, just opposite to the
way the clock-hands go."
Paul did his best to spin and walk at the same time, and Uncle Henry
showed Peter and Betty that the side of Paul's head that was toward the
lamp was always bright, while the other side was always in shadow. As
Paul turned on his axis from right to left his face became lighted, then
the right side of his head, then its back, then the left side, and so
on, round and round.
Part of the time Paul was facing a picture on one wall and the next
minute his back was toward that picture and he was looking at another
picture on the opposite wall, across the lamp.
These two drawings show how Paul faced the two pictures one after the
other.
[Illustration: Night on Paul's Face]
[Illustration: Day on Paul's Face]
"Now tell me," commanded Uncle Henry, "which picture you see the
plainest--is it the one you see when your back is to the lamp--or is
it the one you see when you face the lamp, and look across it toward
the picture on the wall beyond?"
"The lamp is so bright without a shade that it blinds me when I try to
see the picture beyond it," said Paul.
"Oh, I see! I see!" said Betty, beginning to hop up and down. "Can I
tell, Uncle Henry?"
"Surely," laughed Uncle Henry, "what do you see?"
"When Paul faces the picture with his back to the lamp," said Betty,
"it's night on his face, and day on the back of his head! Is that
right?"
"Yes, go on," encouraged Uncle Henry.
"And so he can see that picture better, 'cause the lamplight isn't in
his eyes. But when he faces the lamp and looks across it, then it's day
in his face, and night on the back of his head, and he can't see the
picture beyond the lamp very well, 'cause the sun-lamp shines in his
eyes."
"So that's why we can only see the stars at night!" said Peter.
"Yes, that's why the moon and the stars come out only when it gets
dark," said Uncle Henry. "You see the earth turns round and carries us
to its dark side, the side that is away from the sun. We say 'The sun
has set.' Then when the sun glare is gone from our eyes we can see the
sky-pictures, just as Paul sees one picture better with his back to the
lamp than he does the other when he has to look through the lamp-light
toward it."
"And the stars are in the sky all day long, whether we see them or not?"
asked Paul.
"Certainly," said Uncle Henry. "If you could look up at the sky from the
bottom of a very deep well, or a tall chimney, so that the sun-light was
kept out of your eyes, you could see the stars shining in the daytime.
There is a long deep tunnel in the great pyramid of Egypt that goes up
and out from the centre of its base toward its north side at just the
right angle so that the ancient Egyptians could always see the pole star
through it--no matter whether it was night or daytime. You see the pole
star never rises or sets, because it is always right over the end of the
axis that the earth spins on."
This picture shows how the tunnel in the great pyramid always pointed to
the north star because the tunnel is always parallel to the axis the
earth spins on.
[Illustration]
When the pyramid was built, the star in the tip of the little bear's
tail was not the pole star, as it is now. At that time the star that was
nearest the pole was one of those in the dragon. Since the pole of the
earth goes round in a complete circle among the stars every 25,000
years, the star in _Draco_ will some time be the pole-star again--in,
say 20,000 more years!
Peter had picked up the Almanac that Uncle Henry had borrowed from Katy
and suddenly cried,
"Oh, Uncle Henry, the Almanac has a lot of the Star People in it. It
calls them 'The Signs of the Zodiac.' What's the Zodiac, Uncle Hen?"
"We are going to find out right away, Pete," said Uncle Henry, "but
first we must draw pictures of the twelve star folks that are the Zodiac
signs. That means three drawings apiece. Pull up your chairs to the
table and we'll draw on the sheets of scratch paper with Betty's colored
pencils. Paul, you do the _Virgo_, _Leo_, and _Cancer_ the Crab; Peter
will draw _Gemini_ the Twins, _Taurus_ the Bull, and _Aries_ the Ram;
Betty will do the Fishes, called _Pisces_ in Latin, _Aquarius_ the Water
Carrier, and _Capricornus_ the Goat; while I will draw _Sagittarius_ the
Archer, _Scorpio_, and _Libra_ the Balance. All old friends of ours."
"We'll put the Almanac here in the middle of the table where we can all
see it while we copy the 'signs,' one on each sheet of paper."
Everybody was very busy indeed for about half an hour. At the end of
that time the twelve rough drawings were done and pinned up at equal
distances apart around the walls of the playroom, three on each of the
four walls. They were arranged around the room in the same order in
which Uncle Henry had assigned them. The room then looked like this,
though of course you see only three walls in a picture. You must imagine
how the fourth wall looked.
[Illustration]
"Now Paul, suppose you walk around the table again, spinning on your own
axis as you go, and we'll try to find out what the Zodiac is. You notice
that the pictures are all pinned on the walls at the same height from
the floor, which is just the height of the electric lamp bulb, and just
the height of Paul's head too, no matter where he is in his walk around
the lamp. The twelve constellations, or signs of the Zodiac are in the
real sky also on the same level with the earth and the sun, no matter
where the earth is in its journey round the sun. Astronomers say it this
way: they say that the earth revolves around the sun 'in the plane of
the ecliptic.' That simply means that if the sun was in the centre of an
enormous horizontal pane of glass, the earth and all the signs of the
Zodiac would also always be touching the pane of glass, which would then
represent the 'plane of the ecliptic.' Put an l in 'pane' and you have
'plane.'"
"Is each sign for a month?" asked Peter. "I see there are twelve of
them."
"That's correct," said Uncle Henry, "and you want to notice that as Paul
walks round the lamp and looks across it at the signs on the wall beyond
it, the lamp seems to Paul to move from one picture to the next."
This picture is drawn as if the ceiling of the room was taken off and
you could look down on Paul walking around the lamp.
[Illustration]
When it is January first, Paul, representing the earth, is in the
position marked A, nearest to the picture of _Gemini_ behind him,
while the lamp, representing the sun, appears to him to be entering
the sign of the Zodiac called _Sagittarius_, directly opposite across
the room. Later, on April first, after three months, Paul, or the
earth, has traveled a quarter of the way around the sun, has passed
the pictures of _Cancer_ and _Leo_ on the wall behind him, and stands
nearest _Virgo_ in the position marked B. The lamp has also seemed
to move through a quarter circle, has passed through the signs of
_Capricornus_ and _Aquarius_, and appears to Paul to be just entering
the sign of _Pisces_, or the Fishes. In the same way the earth moves
through a sign of the Zodiac every month and the sun, while really
motionless, _appears_ to also travel through a sign every month. Of
course we cannot see the sign or constellation, where the sun appears
to be, at the same time we see the sun, for his brightness makes the
stars invisible, but if we _could_ see the constellations by day, the
sun would appear to travel from one sign of the Zodiac to the next
every month.
[Illustration]
Here is a clock of the year which shows the earth at one end of the
hand, the sun in the middle, and at the other end of the hand an arrow,
which points to the sign of the Zodiac where the sun appears to be, and
to the date when it seems to be there to an observer on the earth. Draw
the hand with the earth-end in several different positions and you will
see that the sun, if viewed from the earth, would appear to be in the
sign of the Zodiac exactly opposite.
When the children all understood the way the Zodiac divides the yearly
path of the earth into twelve equal parts, Betty said, "I want to know
why the geography globe at school always looks just as if it was going
to tip over."
Uncle Henry laughed. "If you think the geography globe looks unsteady
because its axis of iron rod is on a slant, what will you think about
the earth when I tell you that it spins around in just the same slanting
position, with only an _imaginary_ line for axis?"
"Does it really?" asked Betty.
"Yes," said Uncle Henry, "and it spins so steadily in that slanting
position that the north end of its imaginary axis always points toward
the same place, a point very close to the north star, or _Polaris_ as it
is called."
"_Polaris_ is named for the North Pole, I suppose," said Peter.
"That's right," Uncle Henry replied. "Let's get some scissors and we'll
use our big sheet of cardboard to make a cap for Paul's head that will
show you just how the slant of the earth's axis makes it hotter in
summer and colder in winter."
"Ooh!" exclaimed Paul, "I always thought it was hot in summer because
the earth got nearer to the sun then."
"Lots of people think that, too," said Uncle Henry, "but it isn't so.
The earth is really farther from the sun in summer."
Betty ran for the scissors, and Uncle Henry cut out a big circle from
the stiff cardboard. Then he cut out an opening in the centre of it
that fitted Paul's head just as a stiff straw hat would that was a
size too big for him. The circle of cardboard dropped down until it
rested on Paul's ears and on the bridge of his nose. This cardboard
brim represented the "plane of the earth's equator," just as the pane
of glass represented the "plane of the ecliptic." Since the "plane of
the equator" is always at right angles to the slanting axis of the
earth, the "plane of the equator" is always at a slant to the "plane
of the ecliptic."
If you will run a long hat-pin through an orange, and sink the orange
exactly to its middle in a glass bowl filled with water, holding the
hat-pin at a slant, you will see that the equator of the orange is at
a slant with the surface of the water. Half of the orange's equator
curves up above the water, while half of it curves down under the
water's surface. If you fasten a cardboard ring around the orange at the
equator the cardboard will then be at an angle with the surface of the
water, which represents the "plane of the ecliptic."
Uncle Henry cut two long strips from what was left of the cardboard and
crossed the strips over the top of Paul's head, fastening the four ends
of them to the round cardboard brim close to his head.
[Illustration]
After this Uncle Henry rolled a sheet of the scratch paper round a
pencil, put rubber bands tightly around it, cut the end to bend up and
make a foot and pinned the foot to the cardboard strips at the place
where they crossed. When Paul had it all on he looked very funny with
the pencil sticking straight up from the top of his head, and his eyes
just peeping over the cardboard brim on each side of the strip down the
middle of his nose.
"Now come on, Mr. Earth," said Uncle Henry, "It's time for you to spin
round the lamp-sun for another year or two."
So Paul held his head on a slant and kept it so that the pencil always
pointed in the same direction as he went round the lamp. These four
little pictures show how he looked at the four sides of the sun where
the earth is in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn.
[Illustration]
"Now," said Uncle Henry, "you see that if we make a black dot on one of
the cardboard strips about halfway between the cardboard brim, or the
earth's equator, and the pencil, or the North Pole, it will be about as
far north as we are in the United States. And when Paul is in his Summer
position, with the pencil slanting _toward_ the 'sun,' you see that the
sun's rays beat down much straighter on the black dot than they do when
he is on the other side of the lamp, with the pole slanting _away_ from
the 'sun.' That is why the Winter sun appears to be lower in the sky at
noon than the Summer sun, and also why the Summer sun shines hotter on
the earth than it does in Winter. Notice, too, that the rays from the
lamp light up Paul's head for quite a little way beyond the foot of the
'pole' when it slants _toward_ the 'sun,' while when it slants _away_
from the 'sun' the rays fail to reach the 'pole' at all. This means that
in summer the sun shines a longer time upon the part of the earth that
slants toward it. If you could look down from the ceiling at Paul's head
in his Summer position and in his Winter one you would see why."
Uncle Henry quickly drew these two pictures of the top of a globe to
show the children why the days are long in Summer and short in Winter at
any point in the United States.
[Illustration: _The Winter Day_ lasts while the black dot on the
earth travels from A to B--less than half-way round.
_The Summer Day_ lasts while the black dot on the earth travels from
C to D--more than half-way round.]
"It's just like the hot water bottle mother kept in my bed that time I
had a chill after swimming," said Paul. "The hotter it was before she
put it in the bed the slower it cooled off."
"That's the idea," said Uncle Henry, "the longer the sun shines on any
place on the earth the hotter it gets, and when the nights are as short
as they are in Summer the place hasn't long to cool off before it is
round in the sun's hot rays again. Now do you see why Summer is hotter
than Winter?"
The children did.
"There's one thing I don't understand, though," said Peter. "Why are
there different stars in the sky in Winter than there are in Summer?"
"That's easy to answer," said Uncle Henry. "Look at Paul again--first
when it's 'night' on his face on the 'Summer' side of the lamp, and then
when it is 'night' on his face on the 'Winter' side of the lamp.
"At 'night' in Summer Paul looks at the pictures on one end of the room.
The cardboard brim, or 'plane of the equator,' is slanted _up_, above
the 'plane of the ecliptic.'"
This picture shows how Paul looked.
[Illustration]
"But in Winter, at 'night,' Paul looks at quite different pictures, at
the other end of the room. The cardboard brim is slanted _down_, below
the level of the 'plane of the ecliptic.' This is why the path of the
Winter Signs crosses the sky higher up than the path of the Summer
Signs. In both Winter and Summer you must imagine the cardboard brim to
be as transparent as glass, for the 'plane of the equator' is in reality
only imaginary."
This next picture shows how Paul looked at the constellations at "night"
in Winter.
[Illustration]
"Of course the north star and the stars for a considerable distance
round the pole never set, and can be seen all night at any time of the
year. It is only the ones that rise and set that go and come from our
sight with the seasons. In reality they never leave us, for if it wasn't
for the sunlight getting in our eyes by day, we could see the Summer
night star-pictures in the Winter daytime, and the Winter night star
people in the Summer daytime. We are just looking at opposite ends of
our big room in the universe on Winter nights and Summer nights, that's
all," said Uncle Henry.
Uncle Henry took some folded papers from his pocket and spread them out
on the table.
"Here are four maps of the sky," he said, "which show the way it looks
at different seasons at 9 o'clock in the evening--on January 1st, April
1st, July 1st, and October 1st. You will see that the groups of stars
around the pole are always in view, while the rest of the star people
change with the seasons, but even the groups around the pole change
their positions with the seasons.
"You have all seen the _Swastika_. It has been known and used as an
ornament for hundreds of years, all over the world--by the American
Indians, the Chinese, the East Indians, and many others. I'll show you
where I think all these widely separated people got the _Swastika_, and
how it stands for the four seasons."
Uncle Henry drew four little pictures showing the four positions in
which the big dipper stands in the four different seasons, with its
"pointer stars" always indicating the pole star.
[Illustration: At the right of the pole star in Winter.]
[Illustration: Above the pole star in Spring.]
[Illustration: At the left of the pole star in Summer.]
[Illustration: Below the pole star in Autumn.]
Then he drew all four positions on one sheet of paper, like this:
[Illustration]
And when heavy lines were drawn along the handles of the dippers and
across the pole star from bowl to bowl the _Swastika_ suddenly appeared
like this:
[Illustration]
The Society of Star-Gazers was very enthusiastic about the origin of the
_Swastika_, and found the dipper in its different positions on all of
the four maps that Uncle Henry had put on the table.
You can see the position of the dipper and all the other stars at
January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and December 1st, at 9 o'clock in the
evening, by looking at the four maps inside the covers of this book.
After the children had looked at all the four maps as long as they
wanted to, Uncle Henry suddenly remembered to look at his watch and
exclaimed,
"My goodness! I guess it's about time the Society adjourned for
to-night. Ten o'clock! I'll get scolded for keeping you up so late."
"I want to ask just one thing more," pleaded Betty.
"All right, what is it?" said Uncle Henry.
"Who found all the sky people?"
"Well," said Uncle Henry, "now that's a long story. They were all found
and named so long ago that nobody knows who did it. The inventors of
the star people naturally thought they saw pictures in the sky of the
things they were familar with in everyday life--the bear, the bull, the
serpent, the archer, and so on. If they had had any steam engines then
somebody would have drawn lines from star to star until they had a
picture of one in the sky. In England the Great Bear or Dipper is
usually called the 'Plough' and you can see why
[Illustration]
"It is also called 'Charles' Wain' or wagon.
[Illustration]
"We only know that the constellations are very, very old, and that an
ancient people living in the valley of the Euphrates river probably
named most of them. The Babylonian Tablets, the oldest records known,
show that the Zodiac constellations were known over 3000 years before
the birth of Christ, which is now nearly 5000 years ago."
"Can't we have just one more poem before we go to bed?" said Paul.
"Yes," said Uncle Henry, "but not one of mine. I'll give you a little
bit of a long poem that was written by a man named _Aratos_ about 280
years before the wise men followed the star that told them where to find
the new-born Christ. It has been running through my mind all the
evening. This is it:
"And all the signs through which Night whirls her car,
From belted _Orion_ back to _Orion_ and his dauntless Hound,
And all _Poseidon's_, all high _Zeus's_ stars,
Bear on their beams true messages to man."
FOURTH WINTER EVENING
IN WHICH THE "SOCIETY" MEETS THE LAST OF THE STAR PEOPLE AND
THE BEGINNING OF ASTRONOMY--AND BETTY PROPOSES A "NOTE" OF
THANKS
The Society of Star-Gazers assembled upon the roof the next night with
an eagerness that was tempered a little by regret that it _was_ the
last.
Uncle Henry saw this, and before starting to find the evening's
constellations with the children, told them a few of the many wonderful
things to be seen among the stars with the aid of a small telescope.
He reminded them of the "little cloud" in _Andromeda_, called the Great
Nebula, and said that there were not only many more of these wonderful
clouds of star dust, but numbers of beautiful double stars, some of them
lovely with tints of red, green or orange, and some that can be seen
with an ordinary opera-glass.
Then he told them of the curious variable, or "winking" stars, which
turn bright and faint alternately on a regular schedule, so many hours
bright, and so many hours faint. Also he described the beauty of the
planet _Jupiter_, surrounded by its four little moons, all of which
could be seen with a small telescope.
Then the children began to feel more cheerful, for they saw that being
introduced to the creatures and people of Skyland was only the beginning
of the study of astronomy.