THE MUSIC
OF THE SPHERES

A Nature Lover's Astronomy

BY

FLORENCE ARMSTRONG GRONDAL

NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1926

All rights reserved

IN
GRATEFUL APPRECIATION
OF HIS KINDLY AND
HELPFUL INTEREST
THIS BOOK IS
DEDICATED TO
SAMUEL L. BOOTHROYD
PROFESSOR IN CHARGE OF
THE FUERTES OBSERVATORY
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
ITHACA, N. Y.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I [BEHOLD—THE STARS!]
II [AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STARS]
III [THE ROMANCE OF THE STARS]
IV [THE TWO SKY DIPPERS AND DRACO, THE DRAGON]
V [THE STORY OF ANDROMEDA IN STARS]
Cepheus, the King—Cassiopeia, the Queen—Perseus, the
Hero—Andromeda, the Princess—Pegasus, the Flying Horse—Cetus, the
Sea-monster.
VI [THE PARADE OF THE ZENITH CONSTELLATIONS]
Leo, the Lion—Berenice's Hair—Boötes, the Herdsman—The
Northern Crown—Hercules, the Giant—Lyra, the Harp—The
Northern Cross.
VII [THE SPECTATORS OF THE ZENITH PAGEANT]
Aquila, the Eagle—Delphinus, the Dolphin—Sagittarius, the
Archer—Hydra, the Watersnake—Auriga, the Charioteer.
VIII [GREAT STARS OF THE SOUTH]
Spica—Antares—Formalhaut—Sirius.
IX [THE STORY OF ORION AND TAURUS, THE BULL]
The Lion's Skin—Betelgeuse, on Orion's Shoulder—Rigel, on
Orion's Foot—Orion's Head—Orion's Belt—The Great Nebula
of Orion—Orion's Two Dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor—Taurus,
the Bull—The Hyades—The Pleiades-Castor and Pollux,
the Heavenly Twins.
X [ALONG THE MILKY WAY]
The Milky Way—The Two Crosses—The Magellanic Clouds.
XI [OUR NEAREST STAR—THE SUN]
The Surface of the Sun—An Eclipse of the Sun.
XII [THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN]
The Planets—The Planetoids—Comets—Meteors.
XIII [VENUS AND JUPITER]
The Bright Planet of Venus, the Goddess of Love—The Giant
Planet of Jupiter, the King of the Gods.
XIV [MARS AND SATURN]
The Red Planet of Mars, the God of War—The Ringed Planet
of Saturn, the God of Time.
XV [MERCURY, URANUS AND NEPTUNE]
The Tiny Planet of Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods—The
Strange Planet of Uranus, the Ancient God of the Heavens—The
Boundary Planet of Neptune, the God of the Sea.
XVI [THE EARTH—A PLANET AT CLOSE RANGE]
XVII [THE EARTH'S MOON—A NEAR VIEW OF A SATELLITE]
[PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY]
[BIBLIOGRAPHY AND LITERATURE CITED]
[INDEX]

FULL PAGE PLATES

[A Treasure Trove of 50,000 Stars]
[An Irregular Nebula in Scutum Sobieski]
[The Two Sky Dippers and Draco, the Dragon]
[The Sky Drama of Andromeda]
[The Story of Andromeda in Stars]
[The Great Nebula of Andromeda]
[The Zenith Pageant]
[A Star Cluster in Hercules]
[The Ring Nebula in Lyra]
[A Dark Nebula in Ophiuchus]
[The Pageant Spectators]
[The Four Great Southern Stars]
[The Battle of Orion]
[The Dark Bay Nebula]
[Nebulosity in the Pleiades]
[Stages in Eclipse of Sun]
[Meteoric Shower of 1833]
[Jupiter and Four of His Moons]
[Saturn and His Rings]
[The Earth, Seen from a Distance]
[Columbian Lava Flow in the State of Washington]
[Southern Portion of Moon]
[Northern Portion of Moon]
[Lunar Crater Copernicus]

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

[Big Dipper]
[Earth's Crust]
[The Ancient World]
[Cygnus, the Swan]
[Orientation of Orion]
[Orientation of Orion]
[The Big Dipper]
[Arcturus]
[The Big Dipper Stars]
[The Little Dipper]
[Orientation of Little Dipper]
[The Great Bear's Feet]
[The Two Bears and Draco, the Dragon]
[The Little Bear's Tail]
[The Great Bear]
[Draco]
[Former Pole Star]
[Cepheus]
[Cassiopeia and Cepheus]
[Cepheus symbol]
[Perseus, Andromeda and Pegasus]
[Perseus and the Star Algol]
[The "W" of Cassiopeia]
[Orientation of Cassiopeia]
[Stars in Cassiopeia]
[Stars in Cassiopeia]
[Perseus]
[The Chain of Andromeda]
[Stars of Andromeda]
[The Square of Pegasus]
[Job's Coffin]
[Stars of Pegasus]
[The Winged Horse]
[Cetus]
[Cetus, the Whale]
[Myra, the Wonderful]
[Triangulum, Aries and Pisces]
[Leo]
[Leo, the Lion]
[Triangle of Leo]
[Constellation of Leo]
[Radiant Point of November Meteors]
[Radiant Point of Shooting Stars]
[Præsepe]
[Berenice's Hair]
[Ancient Position of Leo's Tail]
[Present Configuration of Leo]
[Boötes]
[Arcturus]
[Canes Venatici]
[Parallax Angles of Star]
[The Northern Crown]
[Ariadne's Crown]
[Hercules]
[The Head Stars of Hercules and Ophiuchus]
[Cluster of Hercules]
[Lyra]
[Precessional Orbit of the Pole]
[Stars and Ring Nebula in Lyra]
[Harp of Orpheus]
[The Great Northern Cross]
[The Cross in the West]
[Cygni]
[Albireo, on Cygnus, the Swan]
[Aquila]
[The Three Birds]
[The Shaft of Altair]
[Delphinus]
[Delphinus, the Dolphin]
[Sagittarius]
[The Bow, the Scorpion and Hydra's Tail]
[The Bow and Arrow]
[The Milk Dipper]
[The Southern Pointers]
[Hydra]
[Double Stars on Hydra]
[Constellation of Hydra]
[Auriga]
[Capella and the Kids]
[Perseus and Capella]
[The Big Dipper and Capella]
[Locating Vega, Capella and Arcturus]
[Spica]
[Field of nebulæ]
[Relative Position of Virgo]
[Relative Position of Arcturus and Spica]
[Antares]
[Scorpio]
[Formalhaut]
[Urn of Aquarius]
[The Sky Sea]
[Sirius]
[Orion and the "Dog Star"]
[The winter battle]
[Orion]
[The Lion's Skin]
[Betelgeuse]
[Rigel]
[Eridanus]
[Orion, the Hunter]
[Orion's Head]
[Orion's Belt]
[Nebula of Orion]
[Orion's Dogs]
[Taurus]
[Taurus with Horns]
[The Hyades]
[The Pleiades]
[The Stars of the Pleiades]
[The December Sky]
[Castor and Pollux]
[The Heavenly Twins]
[Gemini, Orion and Taurus]
[Relative Positions of Constellations]
[Tanabata and Hirkboshi]
[The Two Crosses]
[Alpha and Beta Centauri]
[Solar Prominences]
[Hydrogen Flames on Sun]
[Sun Spots]
[Direct Photograph of Sun]
[Annular Eclipse]
[Position of Sun, Moon and Earth During Eclipse]
[The Solar Corona]
[Orbits of Outer Planets]
[Plane of Earth's Orbit]
[Orbit of Comet]
[Tail of Comet]
[Comet 1910]
[Phases of Venus]
[Venus, showing Crescent Phase]
[The Planet Jupiter]
[Polar Caps and Surface Markings on Mars]
[Rings of Saturn]
[Aspects of Saturn's Rings]
[Earth's Shadow]
[Earth-lit New Moon]
[The "seas" of the Moon]
[Mountains of the Moon]
["Seas" of the Crescent Moon]
[Craters of the Moon]
[Plato]
[Lunar Craters]

THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

A TREASURE-TROVE OF 50,000 STARS.

Photograph of the star cluster in Hercules by Mount Wilson Observatory through the 60-inch reflector.

THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

CHAPTER I
BEHOLD,—THE STARS!

HOW thrilling to read of great hunts for treasure! Yet the pirates who dug their spades into the earthy loam never cached such jewels as are hidden along the dark slopes of the sky. Armed with a chart of the heavens, the fledgling astronomer prods about in the depths of the gloom, shovels the dark with the aid of his telescope, and discovers,—even more surely than the pirate his chest,—some wonderful treasure. Sometimes the find is a star-like diamond, a twinkling emerald, a fire-filled ruby or a cluster of star gems of colorful hues, but it may be, too, a profusion of riches, heaped in a magnificence that leaves one breathless.

One must know, however, before adventuring along the skyways, just where to look for these starry jewels. The air must also be clear and the eye color-true. In the tropics where the atmosphere is more transparent, the colors seem deeper and more beautiful. This is also true on deserts, on the ocean or on mountain tops.

To those who do not know that stars, even as jewels, have individuality, the various colorings will come as a special surprise. Vega, for instance, is large and most wonderfully blue, rising in the far northeast during the first of May; Arcturus, appearing at the same time near the zenith, is tinted like a King Midas' rose. On the first of June, Antares glows like a scarlet-shaded lamp hung low in the southeast, while in the northeast, creamy-hued Capella scintillates like the electrified cross-section of a rainbow. In the case of a double star where the colors are sharply contrasted—gold and blue or scarlet and green—the effect is startling and very beautiful. Weird looking purple stars and wan lavender ones may also be found, but all these lovely tints and shades are hidden among the hosts of more common yellow and white stars, and if one does not know just where to find them it is like hunting for treasure without a chart.

When the world was young, people gazed in never-ending wonder as the darkness of the heavens filled up with the lights of stars. According to an old Malayan story the stars were the children of the Moon-mother, who brought her children out only at night when the jealous sun, who had no children, was far away on the other side of the earth. The ancient Greeks believed that night came because the God of the Sun drove his sun-chariot along the invisible edge of the western ocean when he returned from the west to the east. All the natural laws of Nature were explained in some such naïve manner by the ancient peoples; the imagery of the Greeks is especially interesting, for they impressed shadowy figures on the very stars. These figures have given names to the constellations, or groups of stars, and to the student of Nature, the legends of these heroes traced in the sky add to the charm of the stars in the same manner that the delicate aroma of the rose enhances its loveliness.

Later, these remarkable people, in trying to account for the fixed and orderly movement of the stars as they slowly passed from east to west, adduced that they must be fastened in crystal spheres which whirled, one within the other, over and under the motionless disk of the earth. They noted that a few of these luminaries followed a wandering course, and so called them "planets"—which means "wandering stars." Since some of these wandering stars moved swiftly and others moved more slowly, they fancied, in their beautiful way of explaining things, that these different rates of speed must cause a musical tone as each star rolled upon its crystal, a deep note for the slow bodies and a high note for the swift bodies, and that with the infinite swelling harmony of all the myriad stars, one vast sweeping tone of heavenly music swirled around the spheres. But this music was for the gods and no mortal could hear it.

Our modern music of the spheres is no more audible to our dulled ears than the music of those ancient days, yet its silent song of light and color, its mystic setting of ancient tales, and its wonder background of scientific fact, descends in the same sweet way to all hearts lifted to receive it. Yet many people miss all this and only know that the stars are there.

It is easy to become acquainted with the more conspicuous of the star-designs which are formed by the brightest stars in a constellation for these seem to hang down from the dome of heaven like electrically lighted frames. Some of these, such as the "W" of Cassiopeia, the "Square" of Pegasus, the "parallelogram" of Orion, the Northern Cross and the Big Dipper, are not only ornaments in the sky, but serve also as guides to point the way to other constellations.

An endeavor has been made to arrange the constellations in this volume in the most easily-learned-without-effort way that could possibly be devised, and to present them in such a manner that the student will go out of doors with a picture of the position of the stars in his mind so that in more advanced study sky maps will acquire a new significance.

First the stars in the vicinity of the North Star are discussed—the two starry Bears and Draco, the Dragon; then the great sky drama of Perseus and Andromeda, with Cepheus, the King of Ethiopia, Cassiopeia, the Queen, Pegasus, the Flying Horse and Cetus, the terrible Sea-monster; the "parade of the zenith constellations" led by Leo, the fierce Nemean Lion; the constellations on either side of this interesting spectacle; the four great southern stars, each noted enough to have the stage by itself, and the gorgeous winter program with the brilliant stars of the Giant Orion, Taurus, the Bull, and Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins.

Whirling about the sun in the same plane as the earth are seven other planets. These planets resemble stars to the unaided eye but show a definite disk through the telescope. With but the expenditure of an idle moment now and then, who would not like to learn a few facts about Jupiter, a world with nine moons and a thousand times larger than the earth; Saturn, a globe surrounded by a magnificent ring and composed of such diaphanous material that it would float on water; Mars, with its mysterious surface markings; Venus, shrouded in the secret of its impenetrable atmosphere; the hundreds of tiny worlds, some but a few miles across, and even the raging sun itself with its hydrogen flames, spots, moving belts and other idiosyncrasies?

These are only suggestions of what may be anticipated in our treasure hunt along the slopes of the sky, but every star that has once been found and called by name will stand forth from the multitude with a magnetic radiance that forever after thrills the discoverer with the pride of achievement.

CHAPTER II
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STARS

"He who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters—the planets, the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man."

—Emerson.

THE dome of the heavens with its constellations of stars turns westward at the rate of about 15 degrees an hour.

Thus the stars, in unchanging order, rise majestically above the horizon in the east, wend their way across the great expanse of sky above our heads, and disappear below the horizon in the west. It is only necessary to note the position of a particularly bright star or a conspicuous constellation lying near the horizon and then return after several hours have elapsed and again note its position in the sky to prove this general movement toward the west. This is an interesting experiment for it is often a surprise to people to hear that the stars of the heaven are constantly shifting their position throughout the hours.

Each star has an individual pathway which describes an arc across the heavens, the exception to this being the circum polar stars which describe complete circles around a point north of the zenith.

The center indicated by the curved pathways of the stars is called the Pole of the Heavens, and in the northern hemisphere this important location is marked by the North Star. The North Star, also called Polaris or the Pole Star, lies almost directly above the north pole of the earth, and is located in the sky by the "pointers" on the bowl of the Big Dipper.

Since we cannot realize the whirling of the earth on its axis which causes the heavenly bodies to appear to pass in the opposite direction, it is the same to us as if the axis of the earth continued upward to Polaris, thus causing this star to seem to stand still, while all the other stars in the course of twenty-four hours seem to whirl in fixed orbits around it.

"The earth in circling round the moving sun,
Seems to give motion to the nearer stars,
Bending the tracks they trace across the sky."

This remarkable performance may be photographed on a clear, moonless night if a camera is properly focused on the North Star and left exposed in that position for two or three hours. The photograph thus obtained will consist of a series of circular trails around the central star. These are produced by the stars moving slowly over the plate in consequence of their changing positions,—just as if the stars instead of our own little world had really moved. This is what the ancient peoples believed and in the words of Aratus

"the axis shifts not a whit, but unchanging is forever fixed, and in the midst of it holds the earth in equipoise, and wheels the heavens itself around."

Since the stars were always in the same order with reference to one another, it was thought that perhaps these luminaries were the heads of golden nails which made the heavenly dome secure. Thus through their apparent immovability, they acquired the name of "fixed" stars, although this fixity has long since been disproved.

The stars nearest to the North Star complete their circles above the horizon and are called circumpolar stars. The Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Draco and the "W" of Cassiopeia are star groups which do this for an observer in the north temperate latitudes. If watched throughout the night any one of these star groups may be seen to complete half of its circle around the North Star, although the other half of the journey would be invisible on account of the daylight.

Although the circumpolar stars may be seen to complete their pathways above the horizon, the pathways of all the other stars are completed on the other side of the earth,—the greater the distance from the North Star, the larger their arcs above the horizon, until the distance of 90 degrees is reached. This greatest curve is shown by the stars which rise almost directly in the east. The stars which rise south of east have only a small portion of their pathways visible.

It would seem that since the stars move as a complete unit, the aspect of the star dome would appear the same at the same hour of the night throughout the year. But this is known not to be the case for in consequence of the earth's motion around the sun, or the apparent advance of the sun among the stars, the same position of the stars re-occurs four minutes earlier each day, and the star groups appear a little farther west at a given hour each evening. They appear at the same time only after the lapse of a year. This is the reason that the dates and hours for the appearance of the different stars are given in the star maps. Since four minutes a day total up to two hours a month, a star seen to rise at ten o'clock in one month will be seen to rise at eight o'clock the next month, and at six o'clock the following month, and so on through the daylight at the rate of two hours a month, until it has again worked back to a place in the darkness of the evening sky.

The number of the stars is beyond determination, but those visible to the unaided eye amount to only a few thousands.

Many stars on the border-line of invisibility send us flickering glints of light although seldom can we clearly see more than two thousand at one time and usually many of these are blotted out by the thick veil of atmosphere which surrounds the earth.

Among the exceptionally bright stars which may be seen from the northern hemisphere are:

Yet even these cannot be seen at the same time but must be viewed from different parts of the earth's journey around the sun.

These brightest stars, which are called first magnitude stars, should be among one's first star acquaintances, for they serve conveniently as guides to locate the other stars, which are also classified according to magnitudes. The second, third, fourth and lesser magnitudes are each progressively two and a half times lower in the scale of brightness. The smallest stars discernible to the unaided eye of ordinary vision are stars of the fifth magnitude, although a sharp eye can discern those of the sixth and even of the seventh magnitude. All below this are telescopic stars. With a 60-inch reflector 219,000,000 stars are visible. The Mount Wilson 101-inch telescope brings the number up to 319,000,000. Stars are most dense in the region of the heavens called the Milky Way. Sir William Herschel observed 116,000 go past the field of his telescope in a quarter of an hour while directed at the densest part of the Milky Way.

This vast collection of stars differ not only in brightness but also in color.

The colors of the stars are brought out most vividly in the telescope if the observer knows just where to look for those which are the most pronounced. Some of the large stars are characterized by the most exquisite coloring,—which is sometimes further enhanced, as a glass will reveal, by a charming companion of a flamboyant or a delicate hue. Some of these "companions" are green, blue, orange, purple, gray, maroon and other colors, but such gayety is the exception rather than the rule. About three-fourths of the stars are white or bluish-white and nearly one-fourth of them are varying shades of yellow. The star Arcturus is of the deepest shade of yellow while the star Spica is so exceedingly white that poets and writers from the earliest times have spoken of the "purity" of its rays.

Although every star visible to the unaided eye may be identified by a Greek letter or a number, most of the brightest stars have individual names.

These individual names were given by the Arabian astronomers who nurtured astronomy through the Dark Ages when this science was almost forgotten by the rest of the world. These odd names have a certain appeal and many of them possess rippling musical qualities which add to the plain word as twinkles add to the star. It is a pleasure to say 'Capella,' or 'Antares,' when we see the gleam of the "Shepherd's Star," or the glow on the "Heart of the Scorpion"; or to call such jewels as shine on "Orion's Belt," 'Mintaka,' 'Alnilam' and 'Alnitak.' After the introduction one naturally takes a particular interest in 'Capella,' or 'Antares,' or 'Mintaka,' or 'Alnilam,' and continues to refer to it familiarly by name.

Each star not only attains a certain charm and individuality by having its own particular name, number, magnitude, color and pathway, but it also forms a part of a highly interesting group called a constellation.

On a clear night points of starlight seem to fairly fill the sky, yet it will be found, on careful examination, that the brightest of them often seem to be assembled together in a very picturesque manner, forming the outlines of figures such as the Dippers, the Crown, the Cross, the Sickle or the Lyre. Since these designs unfailingly deck the heaven's dome at the same place, hour and season each year, there is not the hopeless confusion among the stars that the novice might think from his occasional glances at the sky.

These star groups, or constellations, were probably first noted and named in Chaldea where the ancient shepherds amused themselves by tracing their heroes among the stars. One can well imagine the hold that these dream-pictures would have on a lonely shepherd as he wandered about the solitudes of the hills and gazed through the quietness of the night at the distant stars. For long ages these stories were told by one shepherd to another and so vivid were their fancies and so keenly were they enjoyed that they made an indelible impress upon the folk-lore of other nations and in this manner have been carried down to the present day.

The stars are self-luminous, like our sun,—indeed, the stars are distant suns, and the sun is a nearby star.

With the exception of the star or sun around which the earth and the other planets of our solar system whirl, all the other suns are so immensely remote from the earth that their huge diameters dwindle to a mere twinkle of light. The diameters of some of the stars have been measured and have been found to vary from a few thousand miles to many million miles. Our sun, a most medium sized star, has also been measured and has a diameter of 866,000 miles; this diameter, as seen from any other system of planets, would also dwindle to a twinkle, and our great sun would thus be lost among the other stars.

Throughout the sky are young stars, adult stars, and stars whose light has almost flickered out, for stars, we find, even as all other things in Nature, have a limited span of life. This life may last for untold ages but as surely as stars are formed, so do they die.

The nucleus of a star is formed by gas under high pressure. This gas is gathered together by the force of gravity and gradually condensed into a glowing ball. In contracting the stars at first rise in temperature but when too advanced condensation retards this contraction, then the star gradually cools.

Recent studies have revealed the fact that stars when young are huge and red. This early stage is called the giant stage. Antares, Betelgeuse, Arcturus and Aldebaran are examples of stars at the beginning of their careers. The giant red stars are gaseous throughout and of enormous volume—Antares, the youngest and by far the largest of the four named above, being 400,000,000 miles in diameter. The bluish stars are the hottest stars; a red tinge indicates comparative coolness whether the star is young or old. The blue stars are in the prime of life, intensely hot and brilliant, and glow with a temperature of perhaps 10,000 degrees at their luminous surfaces. With a gradual rise and fall of temperature, stars burn, even as earthly flames, through a continuous series of colors,—generally speaking, red, yellow, blue, yellow, red,—all of which bear a special meaning to an astronomer. The yellow stars, like our sun, are middle-aged; the dwarf red stars, old, like a dying ember. After a star has expended its heat, if it does not in the meantime meet with some accident, it becomes a darkened, lifeless and cold-surfaced globe.

AN IRREGULAR NEBULA IN SCUTUM SOBIESKI.

Photograph by Mount Wilson Observatory through 60-inch reflecting telescope.

The material believed to condense into great hot stars is scattered about in various sections of the sky. This material has somewhat the appearance of a summer-day cloud or an illuminated daub of paint, occasionally as shapeless as a pinch of cotton; however, these objects, called nebulæ, have, as a rule, a definite form, the most common being the 'spiral,' the 'ring' and the 'planetary,' these terms also being the descriptive names of such nebulæ. But most of the nebulæ are not for ordinary folks to see for they lie at such vast distances that they are only visible in a large telescope. Sometimes stars are disclosed enmeshed in nebulous folds or again the nebula is seemingly sprinkled with the gold of stars, and there is one object of this kind that every amateur may locate. This is the Great Nebula of Orion which stretches over the whole of the huge constellation of Orion but is concentrated at the star at the center of the Sword which swings from the Giant's Belt.

"I never gazed upon it but I dreamt
Of some vast charm concluded in that star
To make fame nothing."

—Tennyson.

The Nebula of Orion may be seen in the south in the wintertime with a comparatively small telescope. With a large telescope it is one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring sights in all the sky.

One theory of the life cycle of a star has it born "of nebulous vapor and dead as a tiny, shrunken old sun" and thus the order of evolution would be from nebulæ to extinct stars, but some astronomers believe that stars may change back to nebulæ, "thus forming a universe having no beginning and no end".

The earth travels in a long journey around the sun. This was surmised by Copernicus in 1530 and proved by Kepler and Galileo about 1610. Before this the earth was supposed to be the center about which the universe moved.

The star scenes along this tremendous journey, which covers 576,000,000 miles and requires a year to complete, vary with the seasons of the year—yet year after year as we retrace the same path, the same familiar stars shine in the same familiar groups, each appearing in its set position in the east and at the same time each season.

Viewed through the window of the earth's cold and icy atmosphere, the stars seen during the winter part of the journey seem to scintillate with particular brilliancy. Since we are then passing by the most colorful stars and the most spectacular star groups the gorgeousness of these scenes is unequaled. During the summer the stars are more demure and tranquil in their light but their soft fires gleam with the gold of romance which the ancient people cast about them in journeys of the past. After once recognizing a few of these constellations or beholding through a telescope the glories of a double star or the face of a distant world, one will never again fail through indifference to raise his eyes to the heavens. There is one thing certain—if all the wondrous phenomena of visible stars could be seen on but one of the nights of our long ride about the sun, the civilized world would spend its last cent on glasses and sit up until dawn to feast its eyes on the sublimity of the spectacle.

CHAPTER III
THE ROMANCE OF THE STARS

IN the vividness of their fancy, intensified by glorious scenery and sunny skies, the ancient Greeks believed that the gods dwelt on the summit of Mount Olympus and that queer and lovely beings roamed about the land. They heard the raging of the Wind-gods, the dancing feet of wood nymphs, the trip, trip, trip of satyrs and the music of Pandean pipes as this merry god went skipping over hill and lea. They knew that naiads peeped from the mist in fountains and dryads lived in the hearts of trees, while down in the sea, Neptune tossed up the billows with his trident and the little sea-maids sat in them and rocked and sang. Heroes, semi-divine, swept the earth of its monsters, while gods in golden chariots attended to the welfare of mankind. So deeply sincere was this mythological faith that great temples and beautiful shrines were built in honor of the gods, and one can scarce find a spot in all of Greece, or in all the sky that hangs over Greece, that is not hallowed by some wonderful legend.

This beloved country was thought to lie on the center of the earth, which was marked by the oracle of Apollo, at Delphi. In those days, the earth was supposed to hang like a disk in the great hollow globe of the world, its land divided into two parts by the Mediterranean Sea and its edges washed by the turbulent river of the ocean. The upper part of this globe was illuminated by the sun, moon and stars and was called Heaven, but the lower part extended below the earth-disk and formed a terrifying pit of utter darkness. The Milky Way was a road which led to the home of the gods, but this pit was a place of dire punishment.

One of the many duties of the gods was to see that the earth was properly lighted by the sun and the moon, and that the stars were "penned in" at dawn and "unpenned" nightly. The sun, moon and stars rose and sank in the stream of the ocean, but the sun, instead of being submerged, was carried around the stream from west to east in a winged cup or golden boat made by the god Vulcan.

It was at first thought that Vulcan, with a mighty heave, threw the hot sun-ball over the Caucasus mountains in the east to the Atlantic ocean in the west, and then hastily paddled around the world stream to catch it as it fell, but later it was believed that Apollo, the Sun-god, drove it across the sky in a chariot, the return journey to the country of the sunrise being accomplished by placing both chariot and sun in Vulcan's remarkable boat. Centuries later (about 336 B. C.) Eudoxus evolved the theory of the concentric crystalline spheres which brought the tracks of the heavenly bodies under and above the motionless disk of the earth with the stars rolling round in long-drawn notes of celestial sweetness audible only to the gods.

The ancient people imagined that before the earth was smoothed out flat in its present attractive form, the whole world was tumbled together in great confusion,—land, air, sea, sky, hot, cold, soft, hard, light and heavy all mixed and melting in a desolate mass presided over by the god Chaos. Chaos was dethroned by the God of Darkness, who in turn was dethroned by Light and Day. Light and Day, being orderly, industriously sorted the earth from the sea and extracted the heavens from both. The fiery part was cast into the sky where it splintered into stars, while the earth, "a lifeless lump, unfashion'd and unfram'd," was heaped in a big, broad mound with a deep and terrifying stream of waters flowing around it. Then Uranus, the Heavens, noting his superior position, took the scepter away from Light and Day and became the first ruler of the created world. Love was then born and the Earth, entranced, hemmed in her valleys and extended her plains, made paths for the rivers and beds for the lakes. The seeds, relieved of weight, burst their coverings, and the hills became green with foliage and the meadows brilliant with flowers. The world was now beautiful, and Heaven looked down on the colorful earth, and Earth looked up into the starry eyes of Heaven, and love grew, and the Earth became the Heaven's bride.

In the course of time, Uranus began to seriously consider his numerous and somewhat fearful progeny, for the huge Titans, the one-eyed Cyclops and the hundred-handed giants were here and there and everywhere about the land. Foreseeing that his sovereignty might eventually become imperiled, he picked up the Cyclops and Hecatoncheires and thrust them out of sight into the Pit of Darkness.

Such heartless conduct on the part of her husband aroused the wrath of Mother Earth, who urged the Titans to revolt against their father and release their brothers from the Pit. But the Titans looked at the great Sky and were afraid, all except one huge giant named Saturn who picked up a keen-edged scythe and frightened his father into submission. Saturn then appropriated the throne and made Rhea his Queen,—although he prudently swallowed all of the children that were born to him lest they in turn might take the throne. By the time Jupiter, her sixth child, was born, Saturn's wife was aroused to such a point of opposition that she concealed a stone in the infant's clothes and hid the 'mighty babe.' Jupiter, however, expressed himself so vigorously and so continuously that Rhea, in desperation, sent him away from Mount Olympus, the home of the gods, to an island named Crete, lying to the south of Greece. Here he was fed on honey, milk and ambrosia while his attendants danced and clattered and kept up a perpetual din. This concealment was quite necessary, for his uncles, the Titans, had now become a powerful race of giants and had decreed that not one of Saturn's heirs, but one of themselves would succeed to the throne. His nurses, by the way, and the goat with which he played, were afterwards placed in the sky as a reward for their kindness, the nurses, according to one legend, being accorded a position on the "V" of stars in the constellation of Taurus, while the goat was placed in the arms of the shepherd in Auriga.

When the Titans discovered that they had been deceived and that a child of Saturn's was among them, they rushed with furious war-cries upon Olympus. Hearing the commotion from the island of Crete, Jupiter rushed to the aid of his father, and so confident and strenuous was this powerful child, that the surprised Titans turned and fled. The young god then displayed an inherited trait and helped himself to his father's kingdom and the golden palace on the top of the mountain.

After establishing his sovereignty over the world and rescuing his brothers and sisters through the aid of a powerful potion, he called Neptune and Pluto into his presence and made Neptune God of the Sea, and Pluto God of the Underworld. These three deities were then armed with powerful weapons for Jupiter could hurl his thunderbolts and flash his lightnings, Pluto walk about in the security of a hat of darkness, and Neptune stir up the sea, or calm it, by means of a three-pronged spear. The Titans, now thoroughly cowed, were punished in various ways, some being imprisoned in the Pit of Darkness with their brothers, the sons of Uranus, while others were doomed to work without ceasing on servile tasks for the gods. Atlas, the tallest, was commanded to stand on the western extremity of the earth and bear the vault of heaven on his head and shoulders. His station was later said to be in the Atlas mountains in Africa. Aeschylus, an ancient writer, claims that the daughters of Atlas and their mother, the nymph Pleone, fled to the sky in sorrow when Atlas was forced to undergo this terrible punishment. The seven daughters, now styled the Pleiades, represent one of our most beautiful star groups.

Now when Mother Earth heard of the high-handed ways of her grandson, Jupiter, she decided that she would give him a much needed lesson, so gathering together the most terrible of the giants among Uranus' sons, she incited them to start another great war. This war lasted ten years, the giants proving so formidable that Jupiter summoned the one-eyed Cyclops and the hundred-handed sons of grandfather Uranus to come to his aid. The Hecatoncheires gave immediate assistance by flinging rocks with all their three-hundred hands at once while the Cyclops forged thunderbolts as fast as Jupiter could handle them. In the thick of this bombardment, which left debris and bowlders strewn all over Thessaly, the giants balanced Mount Pelion on the summit of Mount Ossa, which lay between Pelion and Olympus, in a final effort to storm the home of the Gods, but Jupiter, hurling his thunderbolts, struck Ossa from under Pelion and buried the giants beneath the ponderous mass. The violence of this battle shook the foundations of the world:

"the immeasurable sea
Roared: earth resounded: the wide heaven throughout
Groaned shattering: from its base Olympus vast
Reeled to the violence of the Gods: the shock
Of deep concussion rocked the dark abyss
Remote of Tartarus:"

—The Theogony—Hesiod.
(Trans. by ELTON.)

Only one giant escaped, a terrible monster named Typhon, who picked up a whole mountain in a paroxysm of supernatural rage and hurled it at his adversaries. He was finally subdued, after a terrible struggle, by a thunderbolt from Olympus, which knocked him into the sea. There the gods lashed him with the Lightnings of Jupiter and heaped the vast three-cornered island of Sicily upon his limbs, two of the corners weighing down his arms and the third one crushing his feet, while his head was entombed beneath Mount Etna which hurled off its crown to let out his fiery breath. The lame god Vulcan took advantage of this situation and henceforth used the location for his workshop where he forged many wonderful works of art within its fires.

This last war left Jupiter reigning in peace. He was the greatest of the deities, the king of gods and men; he watched over the state and family; his hand wielded the lightnings and guided the stars; and, in short, he regulated the whole course of Nature. Since the world soon became far enough advanced to understand natural phenomena, he was also the last of the Olympian rulers. He is probably the best known of any of the gods and one finds many of the stories of his loves and adventures immortalized in the skies. His daughter Urania was the Muse of Astronomy, and is represented with a celestial globe, to which she points with a little staff.

During the reign of Jupiter's father, Saturn, the God of Time, there was so much happiness in the world that it was called the "Golden Age." Hesiod mentions five ages—the Golden, simple and patriarchal; the Silver, voluptuous and godless; the Brazen, warlike, wild and violent; the Heroic, an aspiration toward the better; and the Iron, in which justice, piety, and faithfulness had vanished from the earth. Ovid omits the Heroic Age. The Golden Age was said to be governed by Saturn; the Silver, by Jupiter; the Brazen, by Neptune; and the Iron, by Pluto. An "Age" was regarded as a division of the great world year, which would be completed when the stars and planets had performed a revolution around the heavens, after which destiny would repeat itself in the same series of events. Thus mythology was brought into connection with astronomy. It was believed that successive conflagrations and deluges were designed by the gods to purify the earth from guilt, and that after each of these judgments man was again so regenerated as to live for a time in a state of virtue and happiness. During the Golden Age, the year was one continued springtime, and the earth, "as yet unwounded by the plowshare," produced of its own accord. This was followed by the Silver Age where spring was "but a season of the year" and the "wings of wind were clogged with ice and snow" driving shivering mortals into houses. Next came the Brazen Age, a "warlike offspring, prompt to bloody rage," and last of all the Iron Age when again—according to Dryden's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses—landmarks were set up "limiting to each his right," and not satisfied with the blessings of earth men greedily rummaged beneath the soil for the precious ore the gods had wisely hidden next to Tartarus. This ungrateful race was then destroyed by Jupiter, who sank their country and formed a new people to take their place. In the meantime, all the gods and goddesses had left the earth, Astræa, Goddess of Justice and Purity, remaining to the last. When man finally became so inferior that he engaged in strife and discord, this goddess hid her face in sorrow and flew upward to the sky where she took her place among the stars of the constellation of the Virgin.

Ovid describes the Milky Way as being the great road which led to the palaces of the gods which were clustered about the lofty, cloud-hidden summit of Mount Olympus. In these golden homes with their ivory halls and furniture which possessed self-motion, dwelt Jupiter, Supreme Ruler of Heaven and Earth; Juno, his wife; Mars, the God of War; Venus, Minerva, Mercury and all the other gods and goddesses and many lesser deities. They drank nectar, poured by Hebe or Ganymede, and ate ambrosia, which gave immortal life. Their statures were immense, for when Jupiter shook the locks of his hair the stars trembled, but they often disguised themselves as earthly beings and mingled with mankind. At times they issued commands through the voice of an oracle, or displayed anger through some exhibition of nature, such as when Jupiter threw his thunderbolts.

Although Apollo, Neptune and Pluto sometimes met in council at Olympus, these three gods had their principal palaces in quite a different part of the earth, Apollo's being beyond the "Land of the Sunrise," Neptune's under the sea and Pluto's under the ground.

Around Neptune's palace waved his lawns of seaweed and his trees of coral while the currents were the breezes which fanned and cooled his brow. His scepter was a trident with which he raised and stilled storms while his chariot was a shell drawn by brazen-hoofed sea-horses. Dolphins, tritons and sea-monsters made sportive homage about his watery path and sea-nymphs played among his rocks and grottoes or sat on the shore in the moonlight drying their long, bright hair. Neptune married one of these, a lovely dark-eyed nymph named Amphitrite and made her Goddess of the Sea. The dolphin which carried him during his courtship was rewarded by being placed on a diamond-shaped group of stars which have ever since been called "Delphinus, the Dolphin."

The kingdom of Pluto, the Ruler of the Shades, was a level, cloudy country under the ground and was inhabited by pale, fleeting shadows, the spirits of those who had died in the country on top of the ground. Across the meadows of this dreary land wandered the river of Sighs and the river of Forgetfulness,—but the flaming river of Phlegethon, with its sulphurous smoke and its waves of fire, flowed in an endless circle about the walls of Tartarus where the wicked groaned and clanked their chains. If a soul was not condemned by the three judges, who weighed the good and evil deeds in their scales, it was led to a place of happiness called the Elysian Fields, which was supposed by some writers to be next to Tartarus, but by others, to be above the earth on the Isles of the Blest in the western ocean. The gates to Pluto's regions were guarded by a fiendish dog with three heads but there were supposed to be a number of pathways which led to the upper world for strange vapors drifted out of an unexplored cave in southern Italy and both Hercules and Orpheus went down through caves in Greece to

"Pluto, the grisly god, who never spares,
Who feels no mercy, who hears no prayers."

—Homer.

Hercules went down as one of his Twelve Labors,—some of which have constellations named after them,—while Orpheus descended to find his Eurydice, playing so beautifully on his harp that this little instrument was afterwards placed among the stars and called the constellation Lyra.

Pluto rarely appeared above the ground but when he did he made himself invisible by wearing his Hat of Darkness or was drawn in a sooty chariot by fierce black horses whose reins were covered with rust. One day when Typhon was causing trouble around Mount Etna by his incessant grumbling and turning about, Pluto came up to ascertain just how much his roof under the Sicilian land was endangered. This proved a sorry day for the earth, for while the gloomy-faced god was looking about for cracks, Venus saw him from a distant hilltop, and calling Cupid, told him to shoot the dour fellow with a gold-tipped arrow, for this was the only kingdom over which she had no control. The first person whom Pluto saw was Proserpine, the beautiful daughter of Ceres, the tutelary Goddess of Sicily, and falling immediately in love with her, he carried her off to his kingdom under the ground. Although for many days Proserpine wept bitterly, she gradually became reconciled, and once ate six pomegranate seeds from a tree in Pluto's sunless garden. This proved her undoing, for when Ceres discovered that Proserpine was Queen of the Kingdom of Shades, she inquired of the Fates if there was any chance of her daughter's release and they informed her that since Proserpine had tasted of the seeds, the food of death, she must spend six months of every year with Pluto. Thus, through six long months Ceres, the Goddess of the Harvests, sits and weeps and no fresh crops are planted and no fruits appear on trees or vines; in the meantime poor mortals do the best they can throughout the winter and wait eagerly for the springtime when Proserpine again appears above the land and Ceres, in happiness, sows the grain and covers the orchards with masses of blossoms.

Apollo, a son of Jupiter, was dazzling and life-giving—a direct contrast to Pluto, dark-visaged King of the Dead. Apollo's sun-palace, which had been built by Vulcan in the country beyond the east, was crusted thick with gold and embedded with large and wonderful jewels. His sun-chariot was also of gold, but of so great a radiance that it blinded the eyes of any one but the gods. Every morning Apollo put the sun in this chariot and drove to the eastern gates where Aurora, Goddess of the Dawn, flung down the bars for her Sun-god, who penned up the stars, collected his Hours about him and drove out along the pathway of the Heaven with the brilliant light of the sun.

Phæthon, an ambitious son of Apollo, watched his father day after day, and wished that he, too, might ride in such radiant splendor above the clouds. At last he made his way to the sun-palace and begged his father that he might show his comrades in Greece that he was truly the child of so glorious a god by being privileged to drive the sun. Apollo was horrified, but Phæthon persisted and at last he gave his reluctant consent. The headstrong youth then jumped into the chariot, grasped the reins of the celestial steeds and started along the zodiac. Ancient poets assert that the Earth looked up and trembled as she watched the snow-white horses of the Sun-god tear wildly up the steep slope in the east. The constellations shook with terror as they swerved from the beaten pathway, the Serpent twined about the icy Pole grew warm and began to writhe, and the Bear's stars fluttered and "wished to dip in the forbidden sea." Half dead with fear, Phæthon saw the shadowy star-decked forms of wild beasts scattered about the heavens and shuddered as the fierce Scorpion moved his claws and brandished his sting. Now beyond all control, the horses veered aside from the "heat vex't creatures" and rushed straight toward the earth, but, just in time, Jupiter hurled a tremendous thunderbolt and knocked Phæthon out of his chariot into a nearby river. The horses now turned toward the horizon which rested beyond the waters in the west, but the burning sun-ball had been drawn so close to the earth that the Nile had fled in fright and hid its head, which still remains hidden, and over a great area now known as the African desert, the moisture had risen like a cloud of steam leaving a drear, unfertile waste of land good for naught. The poor African people fared even worse, for while gazing bewildered at the wild antics of the sun, their faces were scorched and their bodies were scorched and they transmitted forever after to all succeeding generations the scourge of being hopelessly black! As a memorial of this famous adventure, the name of the river Eridanus, into which Phæthon had fallen, was given to one of the star groups in the sky. This was also supposed to be a consolation to Apollo, who grieved so deeply at the death of his son and all the unfortunate consequences of his adventure that he offered to allow any other god on Olympus the privilege of driving the sun on its daily course from east to west, but no other god could do this, nor were any willing to try.

Apollo had a twin sister named Diana who owned a chariot as wonderful as his own, only it was wrought of pure silver and made to carry the earth's night light, called the moon. But Diana did not spend all of her time in the sky, for she loved to hunt and would often leave her chariot at home, take out her bow and arrow and spend whole nights upon the mountains with her nymphs. She was wondrously fair and full of grace but not as faithful as her brother, and at such times as she chooses to enjoy herself, earth-beings must do without a moon.

Besides the gods and the goddesses who dwelt in ancient Greece, there were many heroes who were semi-divine. One recalls Perseus, Hercules, the twins Castor and Pollux and others. Perseus was a son of Jupiter and a very noted hero. One of his adventures was so thrilling that the early people of this little country impressed its story on six constellations!

Hercules, the hero famed for his wonderful strength, patience and endurance, was a grandson of Perseus. He was also rewarded with a constellation. So was Orion, the giant, who has the most conspicuous figure of stars in all the sky. The twins, Castor and Pollux, were given twin stars and were much beloved by seamen for it was thought that if both stars were visible, fine weather was sure to follow.

Not only were gods and heroes placed in the sky, but also objects and creatures connected with their adventures.

"monstrous shadows of prodigious size,
That deck'd with stars, lie scatter'd o'er the skies."

—Ovid's Metamorphoses.
(ADDISON'S Trans.)

Thus we find among the constellations Draco, the Dragon; Cygnus, the Swan; Ursa Major, the Great Bear; Ursa Minor, the Little Bear;

The Constellation of Cygnus, the Swan.

Lyra, the Harp; Pegasus, the Flying Horse; Cancer, the Crab; Delphinus, the Dolphin; Pisces, the Fishes; Sagitta, the Arrow; Argo, the Ship; Corona, the Crown; Leo, the Lion; Scorpius, the Scorpion; Hydra, the Watersnake; Aries, the Ram; Taurus, the Bull; Eridanus, the River, and others.

Mapmakers later drew fanciful pictures of these objects and animals and heroes which had been transposed to the sky and united them up with the positions of the stars. This imaginative tapestry of figures is believed to be an attempt on the part of the ancient people to weave a record of their history in the dusk among the stars. That this most original method was successful is attested by the fact that although several thousand years have elapsed these ancient figures still stand and the names that they gave to the constellations are used by astronomers today.

Many of the Grecian characters which are mentioned in the stories of the gods and heroes are personified in groups of three—the three Fates, daughters of Chaos, appointed to watch over the thread of human life—

"Spin, Spin, Clotho spin!
Lachesis twist!
Atropos sever!"

—Lowell.

the three Furies, daughters of Night, who represent the remorse which torments and pursues the wicked; the three Sirens, who lived on an enchanted Isle in the Mediterranean Sea and lured mariners on the rocks with their bewitching songs; the three Graces, who presided over feast and dance; the nine Muses, daughters of Jupiter, who dwelt on Mount Helicon and presided over arts and sciences—

"Fortunate is he whomsoever the Muses love, and sweet blows his voice from his lips."

Mount Helicon was also the home of the great Flying Horse which is sought by poets and is now represented in the sky by a large square of stars called the Square of Pegasus. In one of the adventures of the hero Perseus he snatched the solitary eye away from the three Grey Sisters and thus forced them to tell where he might find the three terrible Gorgons. Transcribed to stars, he still holds the snaky ringlets of the Gorgon Medusa which he had been forced to obtain at the command of the king of the Island of Seriphus. This head now has the added attraction of a mysterious star called Algol, which every few days indulges in a slow, deliberate "wink," a performance most unusual among the wide-eyed stars.

The names of the gods and goddesses were bestowed upon the five planets then known—Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury. This plan was also followed when the two outer planets, Uranus and Neptune, were discovered in modern days. These names are Roman names but the mythology of the Greeks and Romans is so intermingled that the names of their characters are, as a general rule, used interchangeably, although the Roman names seem more popular and are used by astronomers. Many writers of mythology use the Grecian names entirely because much of the material of the Roman legends was brought into their literature by Greek poetry.

The symbols of the gods were used as signs for their planets. These signs are very familiar objects in almanacs. Thus, Uranus (Heaven) and Earth are respectively represented by ♅ and ♁; Saturn, their son, has a sign which suggests his ancient scythe ♄; Jupiter has a hieroglyph for the eagle ♃, a bird which carried his thunderbolts; his brother Neptune is pictured with a trident ♆, the pronged fork he used when issuing commands; Mercury, son of Jupiter, is represented by his Caduceus, a miraculous staff intertwined with serpents ☿; Mars, God of War and also a son of Jupiter, a conventionalized arrangement of his shield and spear ♂; while Venus, Goddess of Love and born from the foam of the sea, has a sign somewhat like Mercury's ♀, resembling a hand mirror.

A word as to Mars, Mercury and Venus might not be amiss. Mars was worshiped as a warrior in splendid armor, his name being quite appropriate for the red tinged planet which shines as such a brilliant, fiery star. Discord was visioned as running before him in tattered garments while Anger and Clamor follow in his train. Deimos and Phobos, children of Venus and Mars, were given as names to the two satellites of his planet, although these satellites (or moons), were not discovered until modern times. (The ten satellites of Saturn were named after his brothers and sisters, while those of Jupiter, who possessed nine, were named after various favorites.)

Mercury, also a son of Jupiter, was a somewhat mischievous but charming young man with wings fixed to his helmet and sandals, and his hand held a rod which quieted all disputes. He was messenger, herald and ambassador for Jupiter, just as Iris, who flew along the rainbow in her tinted robes, was a messenger for Juno, Jupiter's wife. It was afterwards discovered by astronomers that the tiny orb which had been given the name of Mercury in honor of this god, not only resembled a drop of "quick-silver" but also possessed the "wing-shoe" characteristic of its namesake, for it speeds at the rate of more miles per second than any other planet in the solar system.

Venus, the beautiful Goddess of Love, has been the inspiration for painters, poets and sculptors in every corner of the world.

"But light as any wind that blows,
So fleetly did she stir,
The flower she touched on dipt and rose,
And turned to look at her."

—Tennyson.

One of the most famous statues extant is the Venus de' Medici preserved in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence. This statue, which was dug up in several fragments during the 17th century, is the work of Cleomenes, an Athenian who "flourished" in 150 B. C.

Venus was called Aphrodite by the Greeks, from aphros, meaning foam. Some poets have told how the foam itself suddenly turned iridescent, trembled, and from its center rose the lovely Venus. Others tell how a closed shell tinted like a rose floated to the top of a billow where it opened and disclosed the pearly daintiness of the goddess. The god Zephyrus, the west wind, then wafted her to the shores of Cyprus where she was adorned by the Hours and later carried to the home of the gods on Mount Olympus where the most beautiful star in the sky, the planet Venus, was named after her.

Owing to the slanting motion of the stars when in the east or west, the figures of these star groups show marked changes. The "Great Square," for instance, stands on a corner star when seen in the east and west although it is a perfect square when seen in the south, while the "Twins" appear above the eastern horizon standing on their heads, slowly right themselves as they travel across the sky and sink feet first when they disappear below the horizon in the west.

To illustrate more clearly one might imagine the "Giant Orion" to be a tiny toy fastened by his waist to a wire bent in the shape of an arc.

As he slides from east to west it is easy to see how his position changes in relation to an eye directly in front of him. This varying orientation is easily understood and should give the reader but little trouble.

Often a part of a constellation, such as the Big Dipper, is more familiar to the majority of people than the whole constellation, which is called "Ursa Major" or the "Great Bear,"—the handle of the Dipper is only the tail of the Bear.

"Constellations come and climb the heavens and go."—Bryant.

In all cases these prominent features will be used as index names.

Romance is said to gain when tinctured with realism just as realism gains when tinctured with romance. So, with a heart filled with beauty and a mind filled with facts, let us go forth on starry nights and seek, with eyes that are friendly, our acquaintances among the stars.

THE TWO DIPPERS AND DRACO, THE DRAGON.

These stars circle about Polaris, the North Star, and are visible at any hour during the night throughout the year.

CHAPTER IV
THE TWO SKY DIPPERS AND DRACO, THE DRAGON

THE BIG DIPPER

A BROKEN handled duplicate of the old fashioned tin dipper that used to hang by the well, lies twinkling in the northern half of the sky. This Dipper is ornamented with seven bright stars although a telescope or a field-glass will disclose dozens more encrusted on its handle and a starry phosphorescence in its bowl.

This Dipper may be found near the zenith, almost overhead, during the early evening hours in April and May; it is west of the North Star in July and August, near the northern horizon in October and November and in the east during January and February.

Although every twenty-four hours this Sky Dipper swings completely around the North Star, half of the journey is invisible because the strong light of the sun prevents us from seeing the stars in the daytime.

"The fiery sun, when wheeling up heaven's height,
Obscures the stars and the moon's holy light."

—Leonidas.

The stars, however, rise two hours earlier every month and this brings the Dipper, when observed during the early hours of darkness, to different positions in the sky during the different seasons.

Since this conspicuous star figure travels completely around the arctic circle of the heavens in twenty-four hours, the space within this circle has been likened to a great star clock, the two outer stars on the bowl—called "The Pointers"—forming the hour hand which always points toward the center of the clock marked by the North Star. With a little attention anyone may learn to judge the time by this timepiece and wager as much on it as the Carrier in Shakespeare's King Henry IV who looks up as he enters the Inn Yard with his lantern and remarks:

"Heigh-ho! An't be not four by the day, I'll be hanged, Charles' Wain is over the new chimney, and yet our horse is not packed."

The Big Dipper is called "Charles' Wain" in England, the bowl being the wagon or wain, and the stars on the handle, the horses. It is also called "David's chariot" and the "Plowshare." In Rome these seven bright stars were called "Septentriones" or "The Seven Plowing Oxen"; in Greece, simply the "Triones."

"'Twas the time when all things are silent, and Boötes had turned his wain with the pole obliquely directed among the Triones."

—Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Boötes, so the story runs, being of an ingenious turn of mind, tilled his land in fine order by inventing the plow which he hitched to two oxen.

For this he was given the title of the "Herdsman" or the "Ox-driver" and placed in the heavens to follow the stars of the Big Dipper which resembles a "wain" or a plow. Boötes' constellation, though very large, is formed of faint stars,—with the exception of one brilliant golden-yellow star which may be located by drawing a curve from the end of the Big Dipper's handle.

The little star just above the star in the crook of the handle of the Dipper is sometimes spoken of as a 'rider.' The Arabs call these two stars a "Horse and its Rider," the English call the rider "Jack-on-the-Middle-Horse," while the Germans call him "Hans-on-the-Middle Horse." Hans chose this position in preference to any other on the face of the earth or in the kingdom of Heaven.

Astronomers have still another name for the Horse and its Rider. To them it is a "naked-eye double," the tiny star being called "Alcor," and the one on the Dipper's handle just below it, "Mizar." A 3-inch telescope discloses a still closer companion to Mizar which has a decided greenish tinge in its light. Of the two stars composing Mizar, each one is itself composed of two, which revolve around a common center of gravity in a period to be counted in thousands of years. This wonderful law of gravitation which holds not only planets in their orbits, but also stars, was discovered by Sir Isaac Newton, an English philosopher and mathematician. Two stars revolving around a common center of gravity in this manner are called a "binary"; in the case of Mizar and its companion, each of the two visual components is called a "spectroscopic binary." The brighter component was discovered to be a binary in 1889 by E. C. Pickering with the aid of a spectroscope and the fainter component was found to be a spectroscopic binary in 1908 by Frost and Lee. Alcor is also a spectroscopic binary.

The stars are such an exceedingly great distance from the earth that even though they are in constant motion, they do not seem to change their relations to other stars through long periods of time. The whole configuration of the Big Dipper will some day be changed because its stars are traveling in various directions. Through the skill of various scientists this infinitesimal difference in motion is detected and recorded,—not only that a star is moving, but which way and how fast! Thus the spectroscope exploded the old idea that the stars were "fixed." The facts, however, are amazing and one must immediately readjust his ideas of what constitutes big and little, fast and slow, for in studying astronomy the small distances on our earth and the vast distances in space, and man-made speed and God-made speed, can hardly even be compared.

The stars of the Big Dipper are an exceptional group for they are all bright stars of the second magnitude, with the exception of Megrez at the junction of the handle to the bowl. These seven stars, and the "Rider," were given names by the Arabian astronomers, and although modern astronomers prefer for the most part a Greek letter prefixed to the genitive case of the Latin name of the constellation—such as β Ursae Majoris—these names are rather interesting to know. Starting from the top of the Big Dipper's handle, the Arabian names are as follows: Benetnasch, Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Phaed, Merak, and Dubhe.

THE LITTLE DIPPER

The "Little Dipper" hangs on the Pole of the Heavens, swinging swiftly around night after night, century after century.

It hangs stiffly, as a dipper should, from the bright golden nail of the North Star. From its appearance, it would seem that the rapid motion near the pivot of the starry dome had caused its handle to bend forward at a most precarious angle—surely nothing less than the immortality conferred upon it as a part of Ursa Minor could prevent it from flinging its bowl through the depths of space and whirling henceforth an uninteresting stub of a handle.

The Little Dipper is rather faintly outlined, the only bright stars being those which mark the extremities. The two more conspicuous stars were named "The Guards" for it was thought that they protected the "hole in which the axle of the earth is borne." This "hole," which was imagined as keeping in place the north pole of the heavens, is marked by the North Star.

To be exact, the North Star does not mark its precise location but is about twice the diameter of the moon away from it. Such a small distance, however, is scarcely discernible to the eye.

As mentioned before, all the stars travel in unchanged order along their arcs from east to west except this one star which marks the north pole of the heavens. There is no star directly above the pole of the southern hemisphere of our earth. The North Star, or "Polaris," is therefore the only star which remains in an apparently fixed position in the sky, and all the other stars visible to us whirl around it as a center, although in most cases only a portion of their arcs may be seen. If the earth should falter or halt in its rotation, so would the whirl of the stars, and this remarkable exhibition, which is only a delusion dependent on the motion of the earth, would immediately cease to be.

Polaris has a minute blue companion star which may be viewed in a 2- or 3-inch telescope.

The most reliable method of establishing a true meridian in surveying is to take observations on Polaris. "Amid the blue ice and rose-petal night of the pole" this star is, of course, in the very dome of the sky, and Admiral Peary once had the unique distinction of having it shine directly over his head. But in any other location, this star burns like the light of a signal fire marking the north, and its steady, never-failing presence has always heartened and given a feeling of security to travelers, as well as being useful to surveyors.

THE TWO BEARS AND THEIR STORIES

The two sky Dippers are only the flanks and the tails of the whole constellations which are called the "Great Bear" and the "Little Bear." Their names are usually written in Latin—"Ursa Major" and "Ursa Minor."

The tail of the Great Bear, outlined by the bright stars of the Big Dipper's handle, is the most clearly marked portion of his anatomy. So inordinately proud is he of this huge appendage, (which is also, the most clearly marked figure in the sky), that, so old legends assert, he gazes jealously at the lone bright star on the end of the Little Bear's tail in hopes that some day he may gain possession of it and add it to his own. This is another reason why the "Guards" have been placed to watch the North Star.

The feet of this Bear extend to three pairs of stars set nearly equidistant, although there are no stars for one of his forefeet.

The Arabs call these the "Doe's Leaps." The Bear's head is sprinkled with a scattered group of faint stars on a line with the bowl of the Dipper.

This interesting creature is most impressive when in the springtime his shadowy, star-decked form crosses the sky near the zenith. He seems closest then and we cramp back our necks to get a better view of this ancient Bear about whom is twined so many legends.

"The Bear that prowled all night about the fold
Of the North Star."

—Lowell.

Later, during the autumn months, he walks along the rim of the horizon in the north, but there too often, sad to relate, he is more than half obscured by the mists and fogs which hover about near the surface of the earth.

Many attempts have been made to account for the ridiculous length of the brightly-jeweled tails of the star-bears. Richard A. Proctor in "Easy Star Lessons" suggests that as the star maps were arranged by astronomers who being aware of the many legends but who had themselves never seen a bear, naturally supposed the three bright stars in the handle of the Big Dipper to be Ursa Major's tail and so drew it. Since the Big Dipper was made part of Ursa Major or the Great Bear, the Little Dipper, whose seven principal stars resemble those of Ursa Major, was made part of Ursa Minor, the Little Bear.

Howe remarks in his "Descriptive Astronomy" that the "length of the little fellow's tail might be ascribed to environment."

'Tis reasonable indeed. With the tip of it fastened to the North Star for a pivot it might stretch after being swung round for a few centuries. Perhaps, to go still further, this is the reason it is now so thin and therefore faint, and also why it is broken. The quaint theory of Dr. Thomas Hood, who wrote early in the 17th century, is also quoted as a possible reason for the length of the Great Bear's tail:

"Imagine that Jupiter, fearing to come nigh unto her teeth layde hold on her tayle, and thereby drew her up into heaven, so shee of herself, being very weightie, and the distance from the earth to the heavens very great, there was great likelihood that her tayle must stretch.

"Other reason know I none."

Ursa Major was not a real bear, however, but a beautiful and most unfortunate Arcadian nymph, named Callisto, who had been transformed by Juno, Queen of the Immortals, into this great shaggy creature. Years afterward, Callisto's son Arcas, then a boy half-grown, met the bear on a lonely pathway on the mountains and shot an arrow at the creature. Happily, as was often the way with the gods, Jupiter looked down just then, stopped the arrow in its flight and changed the young boy also into a bear. The bears were then raised to the sky and placed among the stars, for Jupiter straightway:

"Snatched them through the air
In whirlwinds up to heaven and fixed them there."

—Ovid's Metamorphoses. (ADDISON'S Trans.)

The place is even yet easily located on account of the clearly marked outlines of the Dippers.

This sympathy on the part of Jupiter aroused Juno to such a jealous rage that she immediately sought a way to bring discomfort to the Bears, particularly to the Bear which was Callisto. It seems that the Greeks believed that the stars enjoyed a dip in the western waves of the ocean before disappearing to the darkness below the horizon, and seeing in this a chance for revenge, Juno harnessed up her peacocks and drove to the palace of Oceanus, the ancient God of the Ocean Stream. Here the goddess found the Ocean God (who was one of the Titans and ruled before Neptune's time), and calling him up from the briny depths inveigled that deity to swear by the river Styx that he would drive the "seven Triones" away from his "azure waters" every time these stars appeared and never, under any circumstances, would he share his hospitality with the Bears. After the long journey from the east across the dimly lighted heavens, this was a hardship difficult to endure, yet to this day, since a god's decree may never be changed, the two Bears turn as they approach the ocean and dare not even linger to sniff the spray. While all the other constellations immerse their stars beneath the waves, these poor creatures again ascend the steep slope of the sky and repeat the big circle about the pole of the heavens with never a rest—nor a bath.

But travelers have quietly observed these stars in a latitude south of 40 degrees, and have noticed, as they approached the equator, that the Bears slip their feet into the sea and still farther south

"despite of Juno, lave
Their tardy bodies in the boreal wave."

Allen, in "Star Names and Their Meanings," comments on the singularity that peoples separated by an impassable ocean had like ideas concerning the resemblance of Ursa Major to a bear.

"Whence came the same idea into the minds of our North American Indians? Was it by accident? The conformation in no way resembles the animal,—indeed the contrary; yet they called them Okuari and Paukunawa, words for bear, long before they were visited by white men. In justice, however, to their familiarity with a bear's anatomy, it should be said that the impossible tail of our Ursa was to them either Three Hunters or a Hunter and two dogs in pursuit of the creature, the star Alcor being the pot in which to cook her. They thus avoided the incongruousness of the present astronomical ideas of Bruin's makeup, although their cooking utensil was inadequate."

According to this legend, which is related from a monograph on "The Celestial Bear" by Stansbury Hagar, the whole bear is represented by the stars of the Big Dipper. The first hunter, who is the first star in the handle of the Dipper, was called the robin and carried the bow with which to kill the bear. The chicadee, the second star in the handle of the Dipper, carried the pot, the little star Alcor, in which to cook the bear. The third hunter, the moosebird, carried the sticks with which to build the fire. Four other hunters followed besides the three represented by the stars in the Dipper's handle.

The chase continues throughout the summer until part of the hunters disappear below the horizon. About mid-autumn the Bear rises up to defend herself but is pierced by an arrow of the robin, and the autumn leaves are stained scarlet from his wounds. The spirit of the dead Bear enters into another Bear and the chase begins again and so keeps up eternally. In the Indian version the group of stars above the hunters (which is the Bear's head in the Ursa Major of the Greeks), is the Bear's den. This den is picturesquely situated on the northern horizon early in the spring and, to the mind of the Indian, the great Bear seems as if it were just emerging after a long winter's hibernation.

There is also an old Iroquois Indian tale which claims that at one time in the distant past the bear had a fine bushy tail but that this tail was frozen off one cold winter when the foolish animal endeavored to catch a fish by letting the long appendage hang through a hole in the ice. In those days, perhaps, the bears were vain creatures,—which might explain, in part, why the star-jeweled tails on the shadowy forms of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are held with the upright pride of a cat with nine kittens as these mammoth plantigrades nightly promenade on their circular path around the Pole.

DRACO, THE DRAGON

A sinuous line of stars divides the figures of the Great and Little Bears. These stars lie on the huge body of Draco, the Sky Dragon, whose length coils halfway around the axis of the world.

Draco is sometimes called the "Guardian of the Stars," the stars being the golden apples which hang from the pole-tree in the Garden of Darkness. This is rather a pretty conceit as the Dragon's Eyes, represented by the stars Alwaid and Etanin, never rest, that is, never set below the northern horizon of Greece.

The above title was probably suggested by the legend which tells of Laden, the sleepless dragon, that guarded the tree of golden fruit in the Garden of the Hesperides. This garden lay near the feet of Atlas, the giant Titan, who sat on a mountain in northern Africa supporting the dome of the heavens. The bright eyes of this snake were at that time aided in their wakefulness by the silvery, lilting voices of the Hesperides, daughters of Hesperus, whose name was given to the beautiful Evening Star so often seen in this direction. According to one legend, Hercules slew this dragon in order to pick the gleaming fruit and bring it to his cousin Eurystheus as his eleventh Labor, but that this Dragon could be identical with the sky dragon, Draco, whose head lies just beyond the heel of Hercules, is somewhat discounted by other legends which claim that Hercules temporarily supported the weight of heaven while Atlas went down to the garden and got the apples from his nieces. In return for this favor, Atlas gained a little rest.

It has also been suggested that perhaps Draco was the monster "with a body more huge than any mountain pine" and "a roar like a fire among the woodlands," which was entwined around a beech tree in the Grove of Mars, the War-god, at the eastern end of the Euxine (which we now call the Black Sea). On this beech tree was nailed the golden fleece of the wondrous ram which flew into the sky and aided two persecuted children to escape. To obtain this fleece, Orpheus drugged the snake with music while Jason stepped across the mighty coils and tore the golden wool from the tree. After the Argonautic expedition, both the ram and the dragon were placed among the stars.

Still another legend relates that when the gods and the earth-born giants waged their mighty war to gain possession of Olympus, a huge crawling monster had the audacity to anger the Goddess Minerva who seized it and hurled it far into the heavens where it caught on the axis of the world, and froze into immobility before it had time to unwind its contortions. The only time on record that this dragon ever revived from its stupid torpor was when Phæthon, son of Apollo, lost control of the steeds of his sun-chariot and the heated vehicle swerved northward from the beaten path.

"Then the folded Serpent next the frozen pole,
Stiff and benumb'd before, began to roll,
And rag'd with inward heat, and threatened war."

—Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Although there are a number of opinions as to just which dragon in legend is represented by Draco, the constellation is a very important one, for one of its stars, a star named Thuban, was at one time our Pole Star. Indeed, in 2300 B. C. the Pharaohs of Egypt looked up at Thuban as their Pole Star. As their Pole Star! But where was our faithful North Star during 2300 B. C., and how could our earth's pole swing from this point in the heavens to one half the way between the "Guards" on the tiny bowl of the Little Dipper, and Mizar on the crook of the handle of the Big Dipper? This strange phenomenon not only happened but happens regularly, for the earth "reels like a top" as well as "whirls," although the reeling motion is so much slower than the whirling motion that while it whirls once on its axis in a day, it reels around only once in 25,000 years. During this time the earth's axis describes a circle from Thuban, through the present Pole Star, around through Vega and back again. Vega may be easily located for it crosses the zenith in the late evenings of summer, a beautiful bluish-white star of the first magnitude. It will be about 11,500 years or about 13,500 A. D. before this blue star will again shine above the northern pole of our earth.

It was not an uncommon thing in olden times to build temples dedicated to the observation of certain stars. It is believed that the great pyramid of Cheops, built 4600 years ago, was so constructed that the light of Thuban, then the Pole Star, would shine down its great stone tube at the time the star was at its lower culmination. Olcott in "Starlore of All Ages" tells us that the idea was to conduct the ray of light from Thuban through the passage opening high up in the side of the pyramid, to the eye of a god hidden far down beneath its foundations. When viewed from the bottom of the tunnel, which ends in a room hollowed out of solid stone, it is said that the mouth appears but little larger than the moon's diameter. It is interesting to note that the pyramid of Cheops is the mightiest structure the world has ever seen. According to Herodotus, 100,000 men were employed constantly on this work for 20 years. But the rays of Thuban can no longer shine down the 380 feet of stone tube to light the eye of the god hidden in its depths, for the reeling of the earth has caused the tube to be out of the star's line of light. It may happen again in 21,000 years, however—if the pyramid is still there.

In China there is an observatory 4000 years old which Samuel G. Bayne in his little book the "Pith of Astronomy" speaks of visiting. Here is a slanting granite wall in which two eyeholes had been bored for the sole purpose of sighting Thuban.

Changes in the universe are very gradual and although 4000 years seems a long time to the limited mind of a human being, it is but little in comparison to the vast periods of time which must pass before a visible change can be noticed in the heavens. We speak of these years nonchalantly, but astronomers have had to work hard and patiently in order to make such assertions and to back them up with sufficient proof.

Traveling backward in imagination on the circle that our pole has taken 25,000 years to describe in the sky, and again imagining the star which we now see as our Pole Star as the Pole Star of that by-gone era, what a difference we find in the appearance of the earth! Herds of strange and savage animals are scattered here instead of thriving villages and cities, and man, in equally savage state, wanders about the hills and plains alone or in straggling bands.

In traveling forward 21,000 years again to the time only 4000 years ago when Thuban, on the coils of the Dragon, shone as our Pole Star, we come to comparatively recent times; civilization on our earth has made great advances, not the least of them being that it has raised its head and has noted that there are not only stars but that the stars differ from one another. Probably during this era the Chinese chose the Dragon for their national emblem.

The principal interest in the constellation of Draco is, of course, the star Thuban. It is interesting to locate this ancient Pole Star which lies on the tail of Draco, just above the handle of the Big Dipper, and reflect that this star was once the hub of the starry universe, with the Big Dipper whirling round and round it in a close circle.

A SUMMER DRAMA.

The Stars of this ancient Royal Family shine conspicuously in the Northeast during the late summer evenings.

CHAPTER V
THE STORY OF ANDROMEDA IN STARS

LIKE the shadow of a dream among the summer stars of the northern sky is a wonderful story of romance and adventure. This story has been mentioned in all Greek literature of the 5th century before Christ, in incidents portrayed on early vases and in wall-paintings found in Pompeii, and its characters have been immortalized on brilliant groups of stars.

The tale that I am about to recount has lived since the time when great fabled sea-monsters were wont to appear and frighten the people along the coasts of the Mediterranean. Wild with terror, the king and his subjects would fly to the temples for protection and would even sacrifice their loved ones if an oracle so decreed.

In an age long past, scientists tell us, strange beasts actually inhabited the waters of the ocean. This they know for they have found the fossilized skeletons. For the sake of the romance let us imagine that some of these still survived in Andromeda's time; that one such monster had wandered in through the straits to the blue waters of the Mediterranean during the reign of her father King Cepheus, and that this king, following the advice of an oracle, actually chained his daughter to a rock upon the sea-shore believing that by this supreme sacrifice the wrath of Neptune might be appeased. Storms, wrecks and other disasters relating to the sea were thought to be the handiwork of the Sea-god seeking revenge for some fancied insult. Seeing the strange sea-beast appear along their coast, the Ethiopians probably considered all their sins and decided the cause was the excessive vanity of their Queen. Thus, from a bare thread, a beautiful story was elaborated and woven about Andromeda, the Princess; Perseus, the Hero; Cassiopeia, the Queen; Cepheus, the King; and Cetus, the terrible Sea-monster.

Not only was Cassiopeia proud and beautiful, but she wished others to be envious of her beauty, and to prove her superiority sent challengers throughout the country so that none might question it. In the excess of her vanity, she deliberately took her throne and sat in state by the shore, loudly repeating her boasts to show that she did not fear even the peerless sea-nymphs.

When the news of this audacious performance reached the ears of the Nereids who inhabited the depths of the Mediterranean, there was great excitement, but particularly was it resented by the sea-beauty Atergatis who straightway swam to the palace of Neptune, under the Ægean Sea, and begged him to avenge the insult offered to his nymphs. Neptune, furious at the effrontery of the Ethiopian Queen, shook the land of King Cepheus until the hills cracked and sent his waves to flood the country and wash away the coast. With the onrushing waters came the ferocious sea-monster which loitered near the shores and the mouths of the rivers and destroyed every man and animal that came within its reach.

Terrified by such a combination of calamities, Cepheus and Cassiopeia fled to the oracle of Jupiter, but they found no peace here, for the oracle informed them that the only way to make amends and ward off the evil that had befallen them, lay in the sacrifice of their innocent daughter Andromeda. There being no alternative, Cepheus was compelled by his subjects to submit to these terms, and taking poor Andromeda to the sea-beach, chained her wrists and ankles and fastened them to staples driven in a rock upon the shore. In the meantime the population of the entire city had gathered weeping upon a cliff, while in the distance Neptune's monster, sensing the commotion, swam steadily nearer, with his wicked, gloating eyes staring fixedly on the dainty morsel baited on the rocks.

Andromeda, in utter despair, bowed her head,—then looked up quickly on hearing the cheers of the people, for the hero Perseus had appeared, bounding and skimming along the sky and slanting downward toward the foaming waves. The hero gave one glance at the awful monster, then drew his sword and drove it deep into the sea-beast's scaly neck. With his other hand he pulled the Medusa's head from his wallet,—and the sea-beast slowly hardened into a beast of stone. With its glassy eyes protruding like balls of obsidian, the creature then sank in a petrified mass to the bottom of the sea.

The heroic youth, amazed at the effectiveness of the terrifying head, flew quickly to Andromeda and struck away the fetters which bound her to the shore. The King and his subjects then swarmed around them and amid great rejoicing carried them to the palace. Not long after, the Princess became the bride of the hero, who put away his fluttering shoes and set sail in a ship to the island of Seriphus.

CEPHEUS, THE KING

This is Cepheus as he is traced among the stars, a king done in shorthand. He claims no star above the 3rd magnitude, but since his constellation is near the North Star and just above the Chair of his Queen, a large and conspicuous "W," it is easy to find and may be seen any clear night the year around. Cepheus may be seen at his best during the summer evenings when his stars are nearly overhead in the dome of the sky.

The other characters in this drama were placed among bright stars and are therefore more easily found, although to less romantic moderns these stars merely indicate the part of the sky-field where the ancients claim the royal family were lifted to the stars.

Below Cepheus, on a "Chair" of bright stars, sits Cassiopeia, his Queen, her arms upraised and her face pensive through long ages of humiliating sorrow; below Cassiopeia stands Perseus transfixed in a heroic attitude, the segment of three stars shining against his armor-clad body, his diamond-bladed sword thrust among the fainter gleams above his head.

The snaky-locked Gorgon Medusa hangs downward from his shield, while among its fearful tresses blinks Algol, the Demon Star. On the line of stars that twinkle at the hero's feet, lies the fair maid Andromeda, her hands outstretched and bound, and her long, dark hair caught with a star on the Square of Pegasus.

The silvery-winged Horse was, oddly enough, placed upside down upon his constellation with his head extending earthward from a corner of the "Square" and his feet pawing upward into the darkness. Far below in the south glitters Cetus, Neptune's wicked monster, although Cetus does not appear until September and is not completely visible until January. The ancient royal family from Ethiopia, now famous for all time, and the immortal Perseus, from whom proud kings claim their ancestry, are conspicuous figures in the northeast during the late summer evenings, and are at their best here rather than in the dome of the sky or in the west.

A small meteor shower radiates from the vicinity of Cepheus during the latter part of June. Remember that Cepheus lies up near the North Star near the Pole of the Heavens and these meteors will not be difficult to locate.

It is also interesting to note that in the constellation of Cepheus may be found the north polar star of the planet Mars.

CASSIOPEIA, THE QUEEN

The "Chair of Cassiopeia" rests upon the path of the Milky Way in the northern part of the heavens. It consists of five bright stars which suggest the outlines of an "M" or "W," and may be easily located by projecting a line drawn from the Big Dipper through the North Star and on again for an equal distance. Thus the Dipper and the "W" in beautiful balance, teeter, now high and now low, about the pole. The "W," however, is most impressive when near the horizon.

Poets tell of the silvery currents of the Milky Way that wind in and out among the stars of this "Chair," but with the telescope one may see more clearly and perceive that the "silvery currents" are a magnificent wilderness of suns.

When the nymphs of the Mediterranean discovered that Cassiopeia had been honored with a choice position among the stars, they were perfectly furious, and even the sympathy of Juno did not console them as she recalled the time that Callisto was transposed as Ursa Major to the stars. Odd fate that forced an Arcadian maid and an Ethiopian Queen to follow each other forever around the Arctic circle of the heavens! The Nereids, however, protested violently to Jupiter that such a reward for Cassiopeia's boasting was unfair and their influence so far prevailed that the Queen was set in a tilted fashion and forced to swing half of every night with her head hanging downward, and both her arms upraised. Furthermore, her "Chair" was strongly outlined while her queenly person was quite ignored. Thus the petty spite of the sea-nymphs was much worse than Cassiopeia's boasting.

There was a slight compensation, when, for all this humiliation, two of the stars in the "W" were named after the Queen's 'heart' and 'hand' by the Arabian astronomers,—Alpha, the lower star of the five bright ones, being called Shedir, "the heart," and Beta, in the back of the chair, Caph, "the tinted hand."

About six centuries ago, a phenomenon happened among the stars in Cassiopeia's constellation, where, suddenly, in a position which had previously been blank, a new star shone forth. This star glowed as brightly as the planet Venus, which outshines every star in the sky. It was so bright that it was even visible in the daytime! This brilliancy then commenced to diminish, the star growing fainter and fainter until in about a year and a half it had completely disappeared.

While new stars have been noted during the course of centuries, the appearance of one is always so unusual that it stands out against the background of the sky with almost a disquieting effect. The presence of an additional bright star, strange as it may seem, is immediately noticeable to one who is familiar with the constellations. Astronomers record its history with as much interest as the appearance of a new island or volcano would occasion on earth.

Two theories for temporary stars are given in Moulton's "Introduction to Astronomy." Professor Moulton tells us that these theories are surrounded by serious objections—but they are interesting nevertheless.

One is "that there is invisible nebulous or meteoric matter lying in various parts of space, particularly in the region occupied by the Milky Way (there is confirmatory evidence of this hypothesis); that there are also dark or very faint stars"—(that is stars which are in the last stages of cooling, a phenomenon also confirmed)—"that the dark stars, rushing through the nebulæ, blaze into incandescence as meteors glow when they enter the earth's atmosphere; that the heating is superficial and quickly dies away." Another hypothesis is that temporary stars "are produced by collisions of stars with stars."

Still another hypothesis among astronomers which has lately gained considerable support is that at the time of an outbreak in a typical nova (new star), a shell of incandescent gas is actually ejected at an enormous rate of speed. Such a phenomenon has been witnessed in the case of one very recent nova.

A 3-inch telescope will show two interesting double stars on the second part of the "W" of Cassiopeia, although the lower of these double stars may also be seen through a 2-inch telescope.

The lower star (α) is a lovely double, one of its components being a rose and the other a clear-hued blue; the yellow star above it has a purple companion which with the larger star whirls around a common center of gravity in a period of about 200 years. Since these stars are suns, as all stars are suns, it is often speculated what effect such combinations of colors would have on a family of planets,—but only a mathematical astronomer would be privileged to figure this out, with such complicated days and nights and seasons. Perhaps there would be no nights—only purple days and yellow days, or blue days and rose days, while peculiar combinations of life—inducing light rays and heat rays might produce strange and awesome forms and eerie vegetation!

Cassiopeia, as well as the Big Dipper, has been called a "celestial clock" for one may read the sidereal time from this configuration of stars with an error not exceeding 15 or 20 minutes. When the star Caph, or β Cassiopeiæ, is vertically above the Pole Star it is sidereal noon; 6 hours when it is on the great circle drawn from the Pole Star to the west point of the horizon; 12 hours when vertically below it; and 18 hours when due east. Caph, or β Cassiopeiæ, leads the other stars of the constellation in their journey westward.

PERSEUS, THE HERO

This is the hero Perseus, easily recognized by the three bright stars which lie in a curved row. These stars hang just below the W-shaped Chair of the unfortunate Queen Cassiopeia who sits in the Milky Way. Aratus, the Greek poet, claims that the sparkles of light which twinkle in this vicinity are particles of dust which the hero stirred up in his haste to rescue Andromeda.

"His giant strides the blue vault climb and move
A cloud of dust in heaven."

What a charming picture to impress upon the sky!

But now in the twentieth century we analyze this dust which the ancients claim their Perseus raised—and what do we find? Every particle in that misty path is a mighty sun, suspended amidst multitudes of other mighty suns, massed in one long strip of splendor across the sky. For (calmly speaking) the Milky Way is a zone of innumerable stars so very distant that the individual lights are blended in one continuous band of silvery haze.

Against this glorious path stands Perseus, sword upraised among its stars, while entangled in the fearful locks of the Gorgon Medusa glows Algol, the "Blinking Demon." This so-called demon-star actually winks, that is, it indulges in one long, slow wink at intervals of exactly 2 days, 20 hours and 49 minutes. Such a phenomenon used to be a source of terror to the Arabs who feared it might be predictive of some disaster.

Although Perseus and the Gorgon are figments of fancy the wink of this amazing star is not imaginary by any means, for its light actually drops from the 2nd magnitude to the 4th magnitude and stays thus, half darkened, for about 20 minutes. Then it begins to slowly brighten and in the course of the next three hours regains its former brilliancy. In the clear air of the desert where the large stars burn like fire-brands, this change in brightness is very noticeable. Since it was not understood, it seemed terrifying and the superstitious Arabs imagined it to be the eye of a demon. It seemed a fitting star for the ancient Greeks to place on the grewsome head of the Gorgon Medusa where ever after it has flashed and faded in the most eerie fashion.

The mystery of this winking star was not discovered until 1889. Then Vogel found that the periodical change of brightness in Algol is caused by a huge dimly lighted sun,—relatively dark compared with Algol,—which revolves around the major sun at a distance of only 3,000,000 miles. (The earth revolves at a distance of 93,000,000 miles from our sun.) Every time this darker body passes between Algol and the earth, five-sixths of the light from Algol is cut off, thus making it appear to blink. Vogel also found, through the aid of the spectroscope, the diameter and mass of these stars. Algol was found to be about one million miles in diameter with a mass less than half that of the sun while its companion was found to be about 800,000 miles in diameter with a mass about one fourth that of our sun.

Thirty stars are now known to be of the Algol type. One of the most remarkable of these, V. Puppis, was found to be in the southern hemisphere and was carefully examined by Dr. A. W. Roberts. This star has a light variation of only 1½ days and is believed to whirl so closely to its companion that it is in actual contact.

The most favorable seasons for seeing Algol during the early evening are in the autumn, winter and early spring; in the autumn, low in the northeast, when it rises at sunset in the middle of September; in the winter, high up in the north, not far from the zenith; and in the spring, low down in the northwest. At the correct time it is possible for anyone to see its change in brilliancy although the best time to watch for this is during September and October. Algol rises at sunset in the middle of September and consumes 9 hours and 12 minutes in reaching the meridian. To best appreciate the change in this star compare it with the stars near by, especially to the 4th magnitude star that lies quite near to it.

Thus Perseus holds Algol on the Gorgon's head which flashes with "fiery snakes,"—his right hand brandishes a glittering sword, his armor is decked with stars, while the 'dust' he raised swirls in a milky path from the zenith to the trees on the horizon.

In the Sword Hand of Perseus the ancient Greeks saw the gleam of the sword borrowed from Mercury, a diamond-bladed, diamond-hilted sword, carved from a single diamond, but modern astronomers searching in the same spot discovered a more wonderful object for, through the eye of a telescope, the two nebulous patches of hazy light on the Sword Hand were resolved into countless stars! These star clusters are interesting even in a field-glass although higher powers disclose them as veritable sun-bursts of diamond-like stars. The two clusters may be located about half-way between Mirfak, the brightest star in the Segment of Perseus, and the "W" of Cassiopeia.

One might at first glance take these crowded masses of stars as an example where the great force of gravity had worked not wisely but too well; but it is only the unbelievable distance that our earth lies from these stars which makes them look so closely clustered together. Would the brighter naked-eye stars which bespangle our sky look like this—a glimmering spot—from so vast a distance? To know that our solar cluster of stars is not the only cluster in the heavens is enough to take a little of the conceit out of man's colossal opinion of himself.

A good meteor shower appears in the vicinity of the constellation of Perseus about the 10th of August. These meteors are best seen around three o'clock in the morning and have been recorded as appearing as far back as 811 A.D. This would seem to reasonably assure the annual reappearance of the spectacle but since the number of meteors is steadily decreasing there is a time in the future when it will cease to be. These meteors are popularly known as the "Tears of Saint Lawrence," mentioned as the "fiery tears" in ancient legends because Saint Lawrence was burned at the stake upon the 10th of August in the "sad old days" of religious intolerance. Every year, like ghosts, his tears return and rain down from the sky in drops of fire. They fall at the rate of about one a minute. Miss Proctor, in "Half Hours with the Summer Stars," mentions a quaint old oriental legend in which the meteors are supposed to be darts which are thrown by the angels at the evil ones who are barred from heaven and eavesdrop at its gates.

The myth which is woven about the hero Perseus is a very beautiful one and a few words as to why the Greeks so loved this gallant lad might be well appreciated by those who are not familiar with the story.

Acrisius, King of Argos, was so selfish and quarrelsome that finally Jupiter, who watched over the affairs of mankind, determined to give him something real to worry about, so Acrisius was informed through an oracle that he would lose his crown and die by the hand of his own grandson. Soon after this Perseus was born, and the King was indeed terrified. His fear increased daily, finally bringing him to such a state of madness that he placed the Princess Danae, his own daughter, and her little son in a large chest and threw it into the sea.

The gods, however, watched the chest and held it steady among the roughest waves, finally stranding it in the sea-weed on the little Island of Seriphus where the wanderers were rescued and given a home.

Years passed, and the King of Seriphus grew to love Danae, but he feared Perseus who looked like a golden-haired god. One day this king planned a great feast and informed his guests that each must bring a gift as proof of his loyalty, and the gift must be either costly or rare. Since Perseus had no wealth, the king suggested that he bring to court the head of the Gorgon Medusa who lived across the sea in the wilds of a strange and distant land.

With his heart filled with sorrow at the thought of this wellnigh impossible task, Perseus went out into the fields and walked about alone. What chance had he against this fearful creature that had the wings of an eagle and hair that writhed in living snakes about her shoulders, and coiled and hissed and darted on her head? More than this, her eyes were filled with horror and turned all who gazed upon her into stone! Walking along thus enwrapped in dreary thoughts, the youth felt himself suddenly grow buoyant, and looking down on his sandals saw that living wings had grown upon their heels; then a polished shield reflecting like a mirror was hung upon his arm, and a sword carved from a diamond, which must have once equaled the size of a bowlder, was thrust into his hand. The gods had again taken care of their own! Holding himself proudly, our hero walked to the end of the island where a high cliff jutted above the rocky shore below. He stood on the edge and looked down at the rocks beneath him; then he raised his head and looked at the high white clouds in the sunny sky. He thought of the gods and his mother—and bravely stepped over—then laughed joyously as he skimmed like a bird in the warm rays of the sun.

It is a long tale to tell how he journeyed northward to the land of snow and ice, then southward again, and across the Mediterranean.

"He saw the southern, and the northern pole:
And eastward thrice, and westward thrice, was whirl'd."

After finding the Three Gray Sisters who had but one eye between them, Perseus forced them to tell him where to find the country where the Gorgons dwelt. After many hardships, he found this country on the western shore of Africa and knew it immediately, for all around stood the images of men and beasts whose flesh and blood the Medusa's eyes had hardened into stone:

"Beasts to the rocks were fix'd and all around
Were tribes of stone and marble nations found."