Transcriber’s Notes: Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_ in the original text. Equal signs “=” before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold= in the original text. Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs. Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected. THE BOOK OF STARS By A. Frederick Collins The Book of Wireless The Book of Stars The Book of Magic The Book of Electricity Gas, Gasoline and Oil Engines The Amateur Chemist The Amateur Mechanic How to Fly The Home Handy Book Keeping Up with Your Motor Car Motor Car Starting and Lighting D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Publishers New York THE BOOK OF STARS _BEING A SIMPLE EXPLANATION OF THE STARS AND THEIR USES TO BOY LIFE_ WRITTEN TO CONFORM TO THE TESTS OF THE BOY SCOUTS BY A. FREDERICK COLLINS “THE BOOK OF WIRELESS”; “THE BOOK OF MAGIC,” ETC. [Illustration] FULLY ILLUSTRATED D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON 1920 COPYRIGHT, 1915, 1920, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Printed in the United States of America TO THE BURNHAMS WITH PLEASANT MEMORIES OF MOUNT HAMILTON NIGHTS A WORD TO YOU The stars are the friends of everyone who knows them. If you have never stood out in the open and watched the stars on a clear night, you have missed the most wonderful sight to be seen from this little old mud ball of ours, and my advice to you is not to let another night go by without making friends with the stars. By the stars I mean everything in the far off sky that we can see, and this includes the white hot points of light we call the _fixed stars_, the blazing sun, the bright planets, the pale, cold moon, the fiery comets and the burning meteors. All of these things in the sky are so easily ours to look at, to enjoy and to use, that we are apt not to take them at their true value, just as many of us do not appreciate to the fullest the green grass, the trees, the birds and all the other good things we have without price.