The story of the sun, moon, and starsGiberne, Agnes
Science
The story of the sun, moon, and stars
Giberne, Agnes
Astronomy -- Juvenile literature
There may be worlds circling around these suns--worlds, perhaps, with
living creatures on them. We know little about how such systems of suns
and worlds may be arranged. Probably each sun would have his own set
of planets, and both suns with their planets would travel round one
central point. Perhaps, where the second sun is much the smallest, it
might occasionally be like a big blazing satellite among the planets--a
kind of burning Jupiter-sun to the chief sun.
Among colored stars, single and double, a few may be mentioned by name
as examples. Sirius, as already observed, is a brilliant white sun; and
brilliant white also are Vega, Altair, Regulus, Spica, and many others.
Capella, Procyon, the Pole-star, and our own sun, are examples of
yellow stars. Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, and Pollux, are ruby-red. Antares
is a red star, with a greenish “scintillation” or change of hue in its
twinkling. A tiny green sun belonging to this great and brilliant red
sun has been discovered. Some have called Antares “the Sirius of Red
Suns.”
It is during the fine nights of winter that the constellation Taurus,
or The Bull, with the star Aldebaran marking its eye, shines in
the evening above our heads. No other season is so magnificently
constellated as the months of winter. While nature deprives us of
certain enjoyments in one way, it offers us in exchange others no less
precious. The marvels of the heavens present themselves from Taurus and
Orion in the east to Virgo and Boötes on the west. Of eighteen stars
of the first magnitude, which are counted in the whole extent of the
firmament, a dozen are visible from nine o’clock to midnight, not to
mention some fine stars of the second magnitude, remarkable nebulæ,
and celestial objects well worthy of the attention of mortals. It is
thus that nature establishes an harmonious compensation, and while it
darkens our short and frosty days of winter, it gives us long nights
enriched with the most opulent creations of the sky. The constellation
of Orion is not only the richest in brilliant stars, but it conceals
for the initiated treasures which no other is known to afford. We might
almost call it the California of the sky.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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