Round the year with the stars: The chief beauties of the starry heavens as seen with the naked eye — John Shaqi
Round the year with the stars: The chief beauties of the starry heavens as seen with the naked eyeServiss, Garrett Putman
Science
Round the year with the stars: The chief beauties of the starry heavens as seen with the naked eye
Serviss, Garrett Putman
Astronomy -- Popular works
It was at first the intention to indicate the course of the Milky Way
on the circular charts by dotted outlines, but this was abandoned in
view of the restricted space. Any one can easily trace the meanderings
and branchings of this starry scarf, the contemplation of which carries
the mind to greater heights of intellectual perspective than any other
phenomenon of the world of matter. If the reader has the good-fortune
to be situated where artificial lights do not interfere with the
splendor of the heavens, he can observe the course of the Milky
Way on any clear night; and, if he possesses skill in delineation,
he may make charts of it and its offshoots which will be of real
value. Better still if he has the means of photographing it. Here is
a non-mathematical field of astronomy which is ripe for the harvest,
and in which the laborers are few. The Milky Way is so full of wonders
that centuries of observation and study cannot exhaust them. There is
nothing more impressive than to see how it often follows curves of
lucid stars as if some mysterious attraction were drawing it toward
them; and yet it itself consists of stars.
A few more words of practical advice to the beginner. Let him, at
first, confine himself to the bright and conspicuous stars and the
striking groups shown in the charts, assigning each to its proper
constellation. When he has become familiar with these in their
broadest aspects, he can turn to the charts at the end of the book and
familiarize himself with the constellation boundaries. After that, if
he wishes to go further, as he almost certainly will, he can obtain a
large star atlas, furnish himself with a telescope, and open up a new
side of his life which will make him rejoice to be, for a few short
years, a dweller on a planet inhabited by beings intelligent enough
to lift their eyes above the horizon and to feed their minds with the
inspirations of the universe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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