Astronomy with an Opera-glass: A Popular Introduction to the Study of the Starry Heavens with the Simplest of Optical InstrumentsServiss, Garrett Putman
Science
Astronomy with an Opera-glass: A Popular Introduction to the Study of the Starry Heavens with the Simplest of Optical Instruments
Serviss, Garrett Putman
Astronomy
Below the tips of the horns, and over Orion's head, there are also rich
clusters of stars, as if the Bull were flaunting shreds of sparkling
raiment torn from some celestial victim of his fury. With an ordinary
glass, however, the observer will not find this star-sprinkled region
around the horns of Taurus as brilliant a spectacle as that presented by
the Hyades and the group of stars just above them in the Bull's ear. The
two stars in the tips of the horns are both interesting, each in a
different way. The upper and brighter one of the two, marked Beta
([beta]) in Map No. 19, is called El Nath. It is common to the left horn
of Taurus and the right foot of Auriga, who is represented standing just
above. It is a singularly white star. This quality of its light becomes
conspicuous when it is looked at with a glass. The most inexperienced
observer will hardly fail to be impressed by the pure whiteness of El
Nath, in comparison with which he will find that many of the stars he
had supposed to be white show a decided tinge of color. The star in the
tip of the right or southern horn, Zeta ([zeta]), is remarkable, not on
its own account, but because it serves as a pointer to a famous nebula,
the discovery of which led Messier to form his catalogue of nebulae. This
is sometimes called the "Crab Nebula," from the long sprays of nebulous
matter which were seen surrounding it with Lord Rosse's great telescope.
Our little sketch is simply intended to enable the observer to locate
this strange object. If he wishes to study its appearance, he must use a
powerful telescope. But with a first-rate field-glass he can see it as a
speck of light in the position shown in the cut, where the large star is
Zeta and the smaller ones are faint stars, the relative position of
which will enable the observer to find the nebula, if he keeps in mind
that the top of the cut is toward the north. It is noteworthy that this
nebula for a time deceived several of the watchers who were on the
lookout for the predicted return of Halley's comet in 1835.
[Illustration: THE CRAB NEBULA.]
And now let us look at the Hyades, an assemblage of stars not less
beautiful than their more celebrated sisters the Pleiades. The leader of
the Hyades is Aldebaran, or Alpha Tauri, and his followers are worthy of
their leader. The inexperienced observer is certain to be surprised by
the display of stars which an opera-glass brings to view in the Hyades.
Our illustration will give some notion of their appearance with a large
field-glass. The "brackish poet," of whose rhymes Admiral Smyth was so
fond, thus describes the Hyades:
"In lustrous dignity aloft see Alpha Tauri shine,
The splendid zone he decorates attests the Power divine:
For mark around what glitt'ring orbs attract the wandering eye,
You'll soon confess no other star has such attendants nigh."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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