Nothing short of what has been termed “the terrific accuracy” of the present day could grapple with the truly tremendous difficulties of this problem of star-distance. It has, however, been grappled with, and grappled with successfully. We now know, not indeed with anything like exactitude, yet with reasonable certainty, the distances of a good many stars, as expressed roughly in round number of “about” so many trillions of miles.[3] We have at least learned enough to gain some notion of the immeasurable distances of countless other stars, lying far beyond reach of earth’s longest measuring-line. [3] The diameter of the moon as seen from the earth is equal to one thousand eight hundred and sixty eight seconds of space. When the parallax of a star is ascertained, it is a simple matter to calculate the distance of the star by the use of the following table. If the star shows a displacement of one second in space, or one eighteen-hundred-and-sixty-eighth part of the width of the moon, that star is distant two hundred and six thousand two hundred and sixty-five times the distance of the earth from the sun. An angle of 1″ is equivalent to 206,265 times 93,000,000 of miles. “ “ “ 0″.9 “ “ “ 229,183 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 0″.8 “ “ “ 257,830 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 0″.7 “ “ “ 294,664 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 0″.6 “ “ “ 343,750 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 0″.5 “ “ “ 412,530 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 0″.4 “ “ “ 515,660 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 0″.3 “ “ “ 687,500 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 0″.2 “ “ “ 1,031,320 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 0″.1 “ “ “ 2,062,650 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 0″.0 “ “ “ Immeasurable. The nearest star, Alpha Centauri, shows a parallax of less than one second (0″.75). The farthest star, the distance of which has been ascertained, is 1830 Groombridge, which shows a parallax of only 0″.045, and is distant 4,583,000 times earth’s distance from the sun, or 426 trillions of miles. The very thought of such unimaginable depths of space, of suns beyond suns “in endless range,” toned down by simple distance to mere quivering specks of light, is well-nigh overwhelming. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE MILKY WAY.