Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20): Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky
Science
Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20): Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky
Science -- Juvenile literature
There is often so much diffused light about the bright stars seen in a
telescope, and so much twinkling in some states of the atmosphere,
that stars appear to dance about in rather a puzzling fashion,
especially to one who is not accustomed to astronomical observations.
I remember hearing how a gentleman once came to visit an observatory.
The astronomer showed him Castor through a powerful telescope as a
fine specimen of a double star, and then, by way of improving his
little lesson, the astronomer mentioned that one of these stars was
revolving around the other. "Oh, yes," said the visitor, "I saw them
going round and round in the telescope." He would, however, have had
to wait for a few centuries with his eye to the instrument before he
would have been entitled to make this assertion.
Double stars also frequently delight us by giving beautifully
contrasted colors. I dare say you have often noticed the red and the
green lights that are used on railways in the signal lamps. Imagine
one of those red and one of those green lights away far up in the sky
and placed close together, then you would have some idea of the
appearance that a colored double star presents, though, perhaps, I
should add that the hues in the heavenly bodies are not so vividly
different as are those which our railway people find necessary. There
is a particularly beautiful double star of this kind in the
constellation of the Swan. You could make an imitation of it by boring
two holes, with a red-hot needle, in a piece of card, and then
covering one of these holes with a small bit of the topaz-colored
gelatine with which Christmas crackers are made. The other star is to
be similarly colored with blue gelatine. A slide made on this
principle placed in the lantern gives a very good representation of
these two stars on the screen. There are many other colored doubles
besides this one; and, indeed, it is noteworthy that we hardly ever
find a blue or a green star by itself in the sky; it is always as a
member of one of these pairs.
How We Find What the Stars are Made of.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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