CHAPTER VI

THE SYSTEM OF THE STARS

The first step towards our knowledge of the starry heavens was made when the unknown and forgotten astronomers of 2700 B.C. arranged the stars into constellations, for it was the first step towards distinguishing one star from another. When one star began to be known as "the star in the eye of the Bull," and another as "the star in the shoulder of the Giant," the heavens ceased to display an indiscriminate crowd of twinkling lights; each star began to possess individuality.

The next step was taken when Hipparchus made his catalogue of stars (129 B.C.), not only giving its name to each star, but measuring and fixing its place--a catalogue represented to us by that of Claudius Ptolemy (A.D. 137).

The third step was taken when BRADLEY, the third Astronomer Royal, made, at Greenwich, a catalogue of more than 3000 star-places determined with the telescope.

A century later ARGELANDER made the great Bonn Zone catalogue of 330,000 stars, and now a great photographic catalogue and chart of the entire heavens have been arranged between eighteen observatories of different countries. This great chart when complete will probably present 30 millions of stars in position and brightness.

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The question naturally arises, "Why so many stars? What conceivable use can be served by catalogues of 30 millions or even of 3000 stars?" And so far as strictly practical purposes are concerned, the answer must be that there is none. Thus MASKELYNE, the fifth Astronomer Royal, restricted his observations to some thirty-six stars, which were all that he needed for his _Nautical Almanac_, and these, with perhaps a few additions, would be sufficient for all purely practical ends.

But there is in man a restless, resistless passion for knowledge--for knowledge for its own sake--that is always compelling him to answer the challenge of the unknown. The secret hid behind the hills, or across the seas, has drawn the explorer in all ages; and the secret hid behind the stars has been a magnet not less powerful. So catalogues of stars have been made, and made again, and enlarged and repeated; instruments of ever-increasing delicacy have been built in order to determine the positions of stars, and observations have been made with ever-increasing care and refinement. It is knowledge for its own sake that is longed for, knowledge that can only be won by infinite patience and care.

The chief instrument used in making a star catalogue is called a transit circle; two great stone pillars are set up, each carrying one end of an axis, and the axis carries a telescope. The telescope can turn round like a wheel, in one direction only; it points due north or due south. A circle carefully divided into degrees and fractions of a degree is attached to the telescope.

In the course of the twenty-four hours every star above the horizon of the observatory must come at least once within the range of this telescope, and at that moment the observer points the telescope to the {83} star, and notes the time by his clock when the star crossed the spider's threads, which are fitted in the focus of his eye-piece. He also notes the angle at which the telescope was inclined to the horizon by reading the divisions of his circle. For by these two--the time when the star passed before the telescope and the angle at which the telescope was inclined--he is able to fix the position of the star.

"But why should catalogues be repeated? When once the position of a star has been observed, why trouble to observe it again? Will not the record serve in perpetuity?"

The answers to these questions have been given by star catalogues themselves, or have come out in the process of making them. The Earth rotates on its axis and revolves round the Sun. But that axis also has a rolling motion of its own, and gives rise to an apparent motion of the stars called +Precession+. Hipparchus discovered this effect while at work on his catalogue, and our knowledge of the amount of Precession enables us to fix the date when the constellations were designed.

Similarly, Bradley discovered two further apparent motions of the stars--+Aberration+ and +Nutation+. Of these, the first arises from the fact that the light coming from the stars moves with an inconceivable speed, but does not cross from star to Earth instantly; it takes an appreciable, even a long, time to make the journey. But the Earth is travelling round the Sun, and therefore continually changing its direction of motion, and in consequence there is an apparent change in the direction in which the star is seen. The change is very small, for though the Earth moves 18-½ miles in a second, light travels 10,000 times as fast. Stars therefore are deflected from their true positions by Aberration, by {84} an extreme amount of 20.47" of arc, that being the angle shown by an object that is slightly more distant than 10,000 times its diameter.

The axis of the Earth not only rolls on itself, but it does so with a slight staggering, nodding motion, due to the attractions of the Sun and Moon, known as +Nutation+. And the axis does not remain fixed in the solid substance of the Earth, but moves about irregularly in an area of about 60 feet in diameter. The positions of the north and south poles are therefore not precisely fixed, but move, producing what is known as the +Variation of Latitude+. Then star-places have to be corrected for the effect of our own atmosphere, _i.e._ refraction, and for errors of the instruments by which their places are determined. And when all these have been allowed for, the result stands out that different stars have real movement of their own--their +Proper Motions+.

No stars are really "fixed"; the name "+fixed stars+" is a tradition of a time when observation was too rough to detect that any of the heavenly bodies other than the planets were in motion. But nothing is fixed. The Earth on which we stand has many different motions; the stars are all in headlong flight.

And from this motion of the stars it has been learned that the Sun too moves. When Copernicus overthrew the Ptolemaic theory and showed that the Earth moves round the Sun, it was natural that men should be satisfied to take this as the centre of all things, fixed and immutable. It is not so. Just as a traveller driving through a wood sees the trees in front apparently open out and drift rapidly past him on either hand, and then slowly close together behind him, so Sir WILLIAM HERSCHEL showed that the stars in one {85} part of the heavens appear to be opening out, or slowly moving apart, while in the opposite part there seems to be a slight tendency for them to come together, and in a belt midway between the two the tendency is for a somewhat quicker motion toward the second point. And the explanation is the same in the one case as in the other--the real movement is with the observer. The Sun with all its planets and smaller attendants is rushing onward, onward, towards a point near the borders of the constellations Lyra and Hercules, at the rate of about twelve miles per second.

Part of the Proper Motions of the stars are thus only apparent, being due to the actual motion of the Sun--the "+Sun's Way+," as it is called--but part of the Proper Motions belong to the stars themselves; they are really in motion, and this not in a haphazard, random manner. For recently KAPTEYN and other workers in the same field have brought to light the fact of +Star-Drift+, _i.e._ that many of the stars are travelling in associated companies. This may be illustrated by the seven bright stars that make up the well-known group of the "Plough," or "Charles's Wain," as country people call it. For the two stars of the seven that are furthest apart in the sky are moving together in one direction, and the other five in another.

Another result of the close study of the heavens involved in the making of star catalogues has been the detection of DOUBLE STARS--stars that not only appear to be near together but are really so. Quite a distinct and important department of astronomy has arisen dealing with the continual observation and measurement of these objects. For many double stars are in motion round each other in obedience to the law of gravitation, and their orbits have been computed. {86} Some of these systems contain three or even four members. But in every case the smaller body shines by its own light; we have no instance in these double stars of a sun attended by a planet; in each case it is a sun with a companion sun. The first double star to be observed as such was one of the seven stars of the Plough. It is the middle star in the Plough handle, and has a faint star near it that is visible to any ordinarily good sight.

Star catalogues and the work of preparing them have brought out another class--VARIABLE STARS. As the places of stars are not fixed, so neither are their brightnesses, and some change their brightness quickly, even as seen by the naked eye. One of these is called +Algol+, _i.e._ the Demon Star, and is in the constellation Perseus. The ancient Greeks divided all stars visible to the naked eye into six classes, or "+magnitudes+," according to their brightness, the brightest stars being said to be of the first magnitude, those not quite so bright of the second, and so on. Algol is then usually classed as a star of the second magnitude, and for two days and a half it retains its brightness unchanged. Then it begins to fade, and for four and a half hours its brightness declines, until two-thirds of it has gone. No further change takes place for about twenty minutes, after which the light begins to increase again, and in another four and a half hours it is as bright as ever, to go through the same changes again after another interval of two days and a half.

Algol is a double star, but, unlike those stars that we know under that name, the companion is dark, but is nearly as large as its sun, and is very close to it, moving round it in a little less than three days. At one point of its orbit it comes between Algol and the Earth, {87} and Algol suffers, from our point of view, a partial eclipse.

There are many other cases of variable stars of this kind in which the variation is caused by a dark companion moving round the bright star, and eclipsing it once in each revolution; and the diameters and distances of some of these have been computed, showing that in some cases the two stars are almost in contact. In some instances the companion is a dull but not a dark star; it gives a certain amount of light. When this is the case there is a fall of light twice in the period--once when the fainter star partly eclipses the brighter, once when the brighter star partly eclipses the fainter.

But not all variable stars are of this kind. There is a star in the constellation Cetus which is sometimes of the second magnitude, at which brightness it may remain for about a fortnight. Then it will gradually diminish in brightness for nine or ten weeks, until it is lost to the unassisted sight, and after six months of invisibility it reappears and increases during another nine or ten weeks to another maximum. "Mira," _i.e._ wonderful star, as this variable is called, is about 1000 times as bright at maximum as at minimum, but some maxima are fainter than others; neither is the period of variation always the same. It is clear that variation of this kind cannot be caused by an eclipse, and though many theories have been suggested, the "+long-period variables+," of which Mira is the type, as yet remain without a complete explanation.

More remarkable still are the "NEW STARS"--stars that suddenly burst out into view, and then quickly fade away, as if a beacon out in the stellar depths had suddenly been fired. One of these suggested to Hipparchus the need for a catalogue of the {88} stars; another, the so-called "Pilgrim Star," in the year 1572 was the means of fixing the attention of Tycho Brahe upon astronomy; a third in 1604 was observed and fully described by Kepler. The real meaning of these "new," or "temporary," stars was not understood until the spectroscope was applied to astronomy. They will therefore be treated in the volume of this series to be devoted to that subject. It need only be mentioned here that their appearance is evidently due to some kind of collision between celestial bodies, producing an enormous and instantaneous development of light and heat.

These New Stars do not occur in all parts of the heavens. Even a hasty glance at the sky will show that the stars are not equally scattered, but that a broad belt apparently made up of an immense number of very small stars divides them into two parts.

THE MILKY WAY, or GALAXY, as this belt is called, bridges the heavens at midnight, early in October, like an enormous arch, resting one foot on the horizon in the east, and the other in the west, and passing through the "+Zenith+," _i.e._ the point overhead. It is on this belt of small stars--on the Milky Way--that New Stars are most apt to break out.

The region of the Milky Way is richer in stars than are the heavens in general. But it varies itself also in richness in a remarkable degree. In some places the stars, as seen on some of the wonderful photographs taken by E. E. BARNARD, seem almost to form a continuous wall; in other places, close at hand, barren spots appear that look inky black by contrast. And the +Star Clusters+, stars evidently crowded together, are frequent in the Milky Way.

And yet again beside the stars the telescope reveals {89} to us the NEBULÆ. Some of these are the Irregular Nebulæ--wide-stretching, cloudy, diffused masses of filmy light, like the Great Nebula in Orion. Others are faint but more defined objects, some of them with small circular discs, and looking like a very dim Uranus, or even like Saturn--that is to say, like a planet with a ring round its equator. This class are therefore known as "+Planetary Nebulæ+," and, when bright enough to show traces of colour, appear green or greenish blue.

These are, however, comparatively rare. Other of these faint, filmy objects are known as the "+White Nebulæ+," and are now counted by thousands. They affect the spiral form. Sometimes the spiral is seen fully presented; sometimes it is seen edgewise; sometimes more or less foreshortened, but in general the spiral character can be detected. And these White Nebulæ appear to shun the Galaxy as much as the Planetary Nebula; and Star Clusters prefer it; indeed the part of the northern heavens most remote from the Milky Way is simply crowded with them.

It can be by no accident or chance that in the vast edifice of the heavens objects of certain classes should crowd into the belt of the Milky Way, and other classes avoid it; it points to the whole forming a single growth, an essential unity. For there is but one belt in the heavens, like the Milky Way, a belt in which small stars, New Stars, and Planetary Nebulæ find their favourite home; and that belt encircles the entire heavens; and similarly that belt is the only region from which the White Nebulæ appear to be repelled. The Milky Way forms the foundation, the strong and buttressed wall of the celestial building; the White Nebulæ close in the roof of its dome.

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And how vast may that structure be--how far is it from wall to wall?

That, as yet, we can only guess. But the stars whose distances we can measure, the stars whose drifting we can watch, almost infinitely distant as they are, carry us but a small part of the way. Still, from little hints gathered here and there, we are able to guess that, though the nearest star to us is nearly 300,000 times as far as the Sun, yet we must overpass the distance of that star 1000 times before we shall have reached the further confines of the Galaxy. Nor is the end in sight even there.

This is, in briefest outline, the Story of Astronomy. It has led us from a time when men were acquainted with only a few square miles of the Earth, and knew nothing of its size and shape, or of its relation to the moving lights which shone down from above, on to our present conception of our place in a universe of suns of which the vastness, glory, and complexity surpass our utmost powers of expression. The science began in the desire to use Sun, Moon, and stars as timekeepers, but as the exercise of ordered sight and ordered thought brought knowledge, knowledge began to be desired, not for any advantage it might bring, but for its own sake. And the pursuit itself has brought its own reward in that it has increased men's powers, and made them keener in observation, clearer in reasoning, surer in inference. The pursuit indeed knows no ending; the questions to be answered that lie before us are now more numerous than ever they have been, and the call of the heavens grows more insistent:

"LIFT UP YOUR EYES ON HIGH."

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BOOKS TO READ

POPULAR GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS:--

Sir R. S. Ball.--_Star-Land_. (Cassell.) Agnes Giberne.---Sun, Moon and Stars_. (Seeley.) W. T. Lynn.--_Celestial Motions_. (Stanford.) A. & W. Maunder.---The Heavens and their Story_. (Culley.) Simon Newcomb.--_Astronomy for Everybody_. (Isbister.)

FOR BEGINNERS IN OBSERVATION:--

W. F. Denning.--_Telescopic Work for Starlight Evenings_. (Taylor & Francis.) E. W. Maunder.--_Astronomy without a Telescope_. (Thacker.) Arthur P. Norton.--_A Star Atlas and Telescopic Handbook_. (Gall & Inglis.) Garrett P. Serviss.--_Astronomy with an Opera-Glass_. (Appleton.)

STAR-ATLASES:--

Rev. J. Gall--_An Easy Guide to the Constellations_. (Gall and Inglis.) E. M'Clure and H. J. Klein.--_Star-Atlas_. (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.) R. A. Proctor.--_New Star Atlas_. (Longmans.)

ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS:--

Sir G. B. Airy.--_Popular Astronomy; Lectures delivered at Ipswich_. (Macmillan.) E. W. Maunder.--_Royal Observatory, Greenwich; its History and Work_. (Religious Tract Society.)

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GENERAL TEXT-BOOKS:--

Clerke, Fowler & Gore.--Concise Astronomy. (Hutchinson.) Simon Newcomb.--Popular Astronomy. (Macmillan.) C. A. Young.--Manual of Astronomy. (Ginn.)

SPECIAL SUBJECTS:--

Rev. E. Ledger.--_The Sun; its Planets and Satellites_. (Stanford.) C. A. Young.--_The Sun_. (Kegan Paul.) Mrs. Todd.--_Total Eclipses_. (Sampson Low.) Nasmyth and Carpenter.--_The Moon_. (John Murray.) Percival Lowell.--_Mars_. (Longmans.) Ellen M. Clerke.--_Jupiter_. (Stanford.) E. A. Proctor.--_Saturn and its System_. (Longmans.) W. T. Lynn.--_Remarkable Comets_. (Stanford.) E. W. Maunder.--_The Astronomy of the Bible_. (Hodder and Stoughton.)

HISTORICAL:--

W. W. Bryant.--_History of Astronomy_. (Methuen.) Agnes M. Clerke.--_History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth Century_. (A. & C. Black.) George Forbes.--_History of Astronomy_. (Watts.)

BIOGRAPHICAL:--

Sir E. S. Ball.--_Great Astronomers_. (Isbister.) Agnes M. Clerke.--_The Herschels and Modern Astronomy_. (Cassell.) Sir O. Lodge.--_Pioneers of Science_. (Macmillan.)

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INDEX

ABERRATION, 83 "Achilles" (Minor planet), 38 Adams, John C., 39 Airy, 39 "Algol," 86 "Andromedes" (Meteors), 80 Apsides, 24, 28 Argelander, 81

BARNARD, E. E., 88 "Bear," The, 14 Biela's Comet, 80 Bouvard, 39 Bradley, 81, 83 Bremiker, 40

CATALOGUES (star), 81-83 Centauri, Alpha, 53 "Ceres" (Minor planet), 38 Challis, 40 Charles II., 50 Chromosphere, 73 Chronometer, 50 Clairaut, 36 Columbus, 48 Comets, 36 Comet, Halley's, 37 ---- Biela's, 80 Conic Sections, 34 Constellations, the, 15 ---- date of, 16 Cook, Capt., 50 Copernicus, 26, 54, 84 "Copernicus" (Lunar crater), 59, 60 Corona, 73 Cowell, 37 Crommelin, 37

DEGREES, 43 Dollond, 47 Double stars, 85

EARTH, form of, 16 ---- size of, 17, 33 Eclipses, 72 Ecliptic, 21 Ellipse, 28 Epicycle, 25 Eratosthenes, 17 "Eros" (Minor planet), 38, 52 Eudoxus, 21 Excentric, 24 Eye-piece, 45

FACULÆ, 70 Flamsteed, 50

GALILEO, 44 Galle, 40 Gascoigne, 46 Gravitation, Law of, 34

HALL, CHESTER MOOR, 47 Halley, 36 Halley's Comet, 37 Harrison, John, 50 Herschel, Sir W., 37, 47, 84 Hipparchus, 24, 81, 83, 87 Hyperbola, 34

JOB, Book of, 12, 14 "Juno" (Minor planet), 38 Jupiter, 18, 32, 77-78

KAPTEYN, 85 Kepler, 28, 44, 88 Kepler's Laws, 29 "Kepler" (Lunar crater), 59

LANGLEY, 74 Latitude, Variation of, 84 "Leonids" (Meteors), 80 Leverrier, 39 Lowell, 63, 64 "Lyrids" (Meteors), 80

MAGNETIC STORM, 76 Magnetism, Earth's, 76 Magnitudes of stars, 86 "Mare Imbrium," 59 Mars, 18, 52, 62-66 ---- Canals of, 63 Maskelyne, 50, 82 Maunder, Mrs. Walter, 72, 74 Mercury, 17, 18, 27, 32, 66-67 Meteors, 79, 80 Micrometer, 46 Milky Way, 53, 88 Minor Planets, 38, 52 Minutes of arc, 44 "Mira," 87 Moon, 11, 14, 21, 32, 33, 49, 55-62 ---- distance of, 51

"_Nautical Almanac_," 50, 82 Navigation, 49 Nebulæ, 89 Neptune, 40, 79 Newcomb, 65 New stars, 87 Newton, 29, 31, 47 Newton's Laws of motion, 31 Nodes, 35 Nutation, 83, 84

"OASES of Mars," 64 Obelisks, 42 Object glass, 45 Observatories, Berlin, 50 ---- Copenhagen, 50 ---- Greenwich, 50 ---- Mt. Wilson, 48 ---- Paris, 50 ---- Pulkowa, 50 ---- St. Petersburg, 50 ---- Washington, 50 ---- Yerkes, 47

"PALLAS" (Minor planet), 38 Parabola, 34 "Perseids" (Meteors), 80 Photography, 46 Photosphere, 69 "Pilgrim" star, 88 Piazzi, 38 Planets, 17 Pole of the Heavens, 13 Pontécoulant, 37 Precession of the Equinoxes, 36, 83 "_Principia_," 36 Prominences, 73 "Ptolemæus" (Lunar crater), 60 Ptolemy, 24, 81

RADIANT POINTS, 80 Radius Vector, 28 Reflectors, 47 Refractors, 47

SATURN, 18, 78-79 Schiaparelli, 63 Schwabe, 69 Seconds of arc, 44 Sirius, 53 Solar System, Tables of, 56-58 Somerville, Mrs., 89 Spheres, Planetary, 21 Spörer, 71 Spörer's Law, 71 Star catalogues, 81-83 ---- clusters, 88 ---- drift, 85 Stars, fixed, 84 ---- proper motions of, 84 Sun, 11, 12, 14, 21, 32, 67-77 ---- distance of, 51 ---- dials, 43 Sun spots, 69 ---- spot maximum, 71 ---- ---- minimum, 71 "Sun's Way," 85

TELESCOPE, Invention of, 45 Transit Circle, 82 Tycho Brahe, 27, 44, 88 "Tycho" (Lunar crater), 59, 60, 61

URANUS, 38, 79

VARIABLE stars, 86 ---- ----, Long period, 87 Venus, 18, 27, 67 "Vesta" (Minor planet), 38

YOUNG, C. A., 74

ZENITH, 17, 88 Zodiac, Signs of, 14, 15, 16, 43

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co. Edinburgh & London

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PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

25. The Meaning of Philosophy . . . By Prof. A. E. Taylor, M.A., F.B.A. 26. Henri Bergson . . . By H. Wildon Carr, Litt.D. 27. Psychology . . . By H. J. Watt, M.A., Ph.D., D.Phil. 28. Ethics . . . By Canon Rashdall, D.Litt., F.B.A. 29. Kant's Philosophy . . . By A. D. Lindsay, M.A. 30. The Teaching of Plato . . . By A. D. Lindsay, M.A. 67. Aristotle . . . By Prof. A. E. Taylor, M.A., F.B.A. 68. Friedrich Nietzsche . . . By M. A. Mügge. 69. Eucken: A Philosophy of Life . . . By A. J. Jones, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D. 70. The Experimental Psychology of Beauty . . . By C. W. Valentine, B.A., D.Phil. 71. The Problem of Truth . . . By H. Wildon Carr, Litt.D. 31. Buddhism . . . By Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, M.A., F.B.A. 32. Roman Catholicism . . . By H. B. Coxon. Preface, Mgr. R. H. Benson. 33. The Oxford Movement . . . By Wilfrid Ward. 34. The Bible and Criticism . . . By W. H. Bennett, D.D., Litt.P., and W. F. Adeney, D.D. 35. Cardinal Newman . . . By Wilfrid Meynell. 72. The Church of England . . . By Rev. Canon Masterman. 73. Anglo-Catholicism . . . By A. E. Manning Foster. 74. The Free Churches . . . By Rev. Edward Shillito, M.A. 75. Judaism . . . By Ephraim Levine, M.A. 76. Theosophy . . . By Annie Besant.

HISTORY

36. The Growth of Freedom . . . By H. W. Nevinson. 37. Bismarck and the Origin of the German Empire . . . By Professor F. M. Powicke. 38. Oliver Cromwell . . . By Hilda Johnstone, M.A. 39. Mary Queen of Scots . . . By E. O'Neill, M.A. 40. Cecil John Rhodes, 1853-1902 . . . By Ian D. Colvin. 41. Julius Cæsar . . . By Hilary Hardinge. 42. England in the Making . . . By Prof. F. J. C. Hearnshaw, M.A., LL.D. 43. England in the Middle Ages . . . By E. O'Neill, M.A. 44. The Monarchy and the People . . . By W. T. Waugh, M.A. 45. The Industrial Revolution . . . By Arthur Jones, M.A. 46. Empire and Democracy . . . By G. S. Veitch, M.A., Litt.D. 61. Home Rule . . . By L. G. Redmond Howard. Preface by Robert Harcourt, M.P. 77. Nelson . . . By H. W. Wilson. 78. Wellington and Waterloo . . . By Major G. W. Redway.

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47. Women's Suffrage . . . By M. G. Fawcett, LL.D. 48. The Working of the British System of Government to-day . . . By Prof. Ramsay Muir, M.A. 49. An Introduction to Economic Science . . . By Prof H. O. Meredith. M.A. 50. Socialism . . . By B. B. Kirkman, B.A. 79. Mediæval Socialism . . . By Bede Jarrett, O.P., M.A. 80. Syndicalism . . . By J. H. Harley, M.A. 81. Labour and Wages . . . By H. M. Hallsworth, M.A., B.Sc. 82. Co-operation . . . By Joseph Clayton. 83. Insurance as a Means of Investment . . . By W. A. Robertson, F.F.A. 92. The Training of the Child . . . By G. Spiller

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[Transcriber's Note:

Italicized text is indicated with _underscores_.

Bold text is indicated with +plus signs+.

Numbers inside curly braces, e.g. {99} are page numbers.]

End of Project Gutenberg's The Science of the Stars, by E. Walter Maunder