Earth and Sky Every Child Should Know Part 17

If you have seen everything I have described so far, you have reason to be happy. For now you know sixteen of the most famous constellations and fifteen of the twenty brightest stars. There are only twenty stars of the first magnitude. "Magnitude" ought to mean size, but it doesn't. It means brightness--or rather the apparent brightness--of the stars when seen by us. The word magnitude was used in the old days before telescopes, when people thought the brighter a star is the bigger it must be. Now we know that the nearer a star is to us the brighter it is, and the farther away the fainter. Some of the bright stars are comparatively near us, some are very far. Deneb and Canopus are so far away that it takes over three hundred years for their light to reach us.

What whoppers they must be--many times as big as our sun.

Here is a full list of the twenty stars of the first magnitude arranged in the order of their brightness. You will find this table very useful.

----------------+---------------+-------------+-------------------------- Stars | p.r.o.nounced |Constellation| Interesting facts ----------------+---------------+-------------+-------------------------- Sirius | _sir'i-us_ | Big Dog | Brightest star. Nearest | | | star visible in Northern | | | hemisphere Canopus* | _ca-no'pus_ | Ship Argo | Perhaps the largest body | | | in universe Alpha Centauri* | _al'fa | | | sen-taw're_ | Centaur | Nearest star. Light four | | | years away Vega | _ve'ga_ | Lyre | Brightest star in the | | | Northern sky. Bluish Capella | _ca-pell'a_ | Charioteer | Rivals Vega, but opposite | | | the pole. Yellowish Arcturus | _ark-tu'rus_ | Herdsman | Swiftest of the bright | | | stars. 200 miles a second Rigel | _re'jel_ | Orion | Brightest star in Orion.

| | | White star in left foot Procyon | _pro'si-on_ | Little Dog | Before the dog. Rises a | | | little before Sirius Achernar* | _a-ker'nar_ | River Po | Means the end of the river Beta Centauri* | _ba'ta | | | sen-taw're_ | Centaur | This and its mate point to | | | the Southern Cross Altair | _al-tare'_ | Eagle | Helps you find Vega and | | | Northern Cross Betelgeuse | _bet-el-guz'_ | Orion | Means "armpit." The red | | | star in the right shoulder Alpha Crucis* | _al'fa | Southern | | cru'sis_ | Cross | At the base of the most | | | famous Southern | | | constellation Aldebaran | _al-deb'a-ran_| Bull | The red eye in the V Pollux | _pol'lux_ | Twins | Brighter than Castor Spica | _spi'ca_ | Virgin | Means ear of wheat Antares | _an-ta'rez_ | Scorpion | Red star. Name means | | | "looks like Mars"

Fomalhaut | _fo'mal-o_ | Southern | | | Fish | The lonely star in the | | | Southern sky Deneb | _den'eb_ | Swan | Top of Northern Cross, | | | or tail of Swan Regulus | _reg'u-lus_ | Lion | The end of the handle | | | of the Sickle ----------------+---------------+-------------+--------------------------

The five stars marked * belong to the Southern hemisphere, and we can never see them unless we travel far south. Last winter I went to Florida and saw Canopus, but to see the Southern Cross you should cross the Tropic of Cancer.

HOW TO LEARN MORE

All I can hope to do in this book is to get you enthusiastic about astronomy. I don't mean "gushy." Look in the dictionary and you will find that the enthusiast is not the faddist. He is the one who sticks to a subject for a lifetime.

Nor do I care a rap whether you become an astronomer--or even buy a telescope. There will be always astronomers coming on, but there are too few people who know and love even a few of the stars. I want you to make popular astronomy a life-long hobby. Perhaps you may have to drop it for ten or fifteen years. Never mind, you will take up the study again. I can't expect you to read a book on stars if you are fighting to make a living or support a family, unless it really rests you to read about the stars. It does rest me. When things go wrong at the office or at home, I can generally find rest and comfort from music. And if the sky is clear, I can look at the stars, and my cares suddenly seem small and drop away.

Let me tell you why and how you can get the very best the stars have to teach you, without mathematics or telescope. Follow this programme and you need never be afraid of hard work, or of exhausting the pleasures of the subject. Go to your public library and get one of the books I recommend in this chapter, and read whatever interests you. I don't care whether you take up planets before comets or comets before planets, but whatever you do do it well. Soak the interesting facts right in. Nail them down. See everything the book talks about. Make notes of things to watch for. Get a little blank book and write down the date you first saw each thing of interest. Write down the names of the constellations you love most. Before you lay down any star book you are reading, jot down the most wonderful and inspiring thing you have read--even if you have only time to write a single word that may recall it all to you. Treasure that little note book as long as you live. Every year it will get more precious to you.

Now for the books:

1. _Martin._ _The Friendly Stars._ Harper & Brothers, New York, 1907.

This book teaches you first the twenty brightest stars and then the constellations. I cannot say that this, or any other, is the "best book," but it has helped me most, and I suppose it is only natural that we should love best the first book that introduces us to a delightful subject.

2. _Serviss._ _Astronomy with the Naked Eye._ Harper & Brothers, New York, 1908.

This teaches you the constellations first and the brightest stars incidentally. Also it gives the old myths.

3. _Serviss._ _Astronomy with an Opera-Gla.s.s._ D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1906.

4. _Serviss._ _Pleasures of the Telescope._ D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1905.

5. _Milham._ _How to Identify the Stars._ The Macmillan Co., New York, 1909.

This gives a list of eighty-eight constellations, including thirty-six southern ones, and has tracings of twenty-eight.

6. _Elson._ _Star Gazer's Handbook._ Sturgis & Walton Co., New York, 1909.

About the briefest and cheapest. Has good charts and makes a specialty of the myths.

7. _Serviss._ _Curiosities of the Sky._ Harper & Brothers, New York.

Tells about comets, asteroids, shooting stars, life on Mars, nebulae, temporary stars, coal-sacks, Milky Way, and other wonders.

8. _Ball._ _Starland._ Ginn & Co., Boston, New York, etc., 1899.

This tells about a great many interesting experiments in astronomy that children can make.

If I had only a dollar or less to spend on astronomy I should buy a planisphere. I got mine from Thomas Whittaker, No. 2 Bible House, New York. It cost seventy-five cents, and will tell you where to find any star at any time in the year. It does not show the planets, however. A planisphere that will show the planets costs about five dollars.

However, there are only two very showy planets, viz., Venus and Jupiter.

Any almanac will tell you (for nothing) when each of these is morning star, and when each of them is evening star.

The best newspaper about stars, as far as I know, is a magazine called _The Monthly Evening Sky Map_, published by Leon Barritt, 150 Na.s.sau St., New York. It costs a dollar a year. It gives a chart every month, showing all the planets, and all the constellations. Also it tells you about the interesting things, like comets, before they come.

Good-bye. I hope you will never cease to learn about and love the earth and the sky. Perhaps you think you have learned a great deal already.

But your pleasures have only begun. Wait till you learn about how the world began, the sun and all his planets, the distances between the stars, and the millions of blazing suns amid the Milky Way!

THE END

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SKY IN WINTER]

NOTE.--These simplified star maps are not as accurate as a planisphere, but they may be easier for children. All star maps are like ordinary maps, except that east and west are transposed. The reason for this is that you can hold a star map over your head, with the pole star toward the north, and the map will then match the sky. These maps contain some constellations that are only for grown-ups to study. The Winter constellations every child should know are:

AURIGA, the Charioteer CANIS MAJOR, the Big Dog CANIS MINOR, the Little Dog Ca.s.sIOPEIA, the Queen in Her Chair CYGNUS, the Swan LEO, the Lion ORION, the Hunter PERSEUS, Which Has the Arc TAURUS, the Bull URSA MAJOR, the Great Bear URSA MINOR, the Little Bear

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SKY IN SPRING]

NOTE.--Once upon a time all the educated people spoke Latin. It was the nearest approach to a universal language. So most of the constellations have Latin names. The English, French and German names are all different, but if all children would learn the Latin names they could understand one another. The Spring constellations every child should know are:

LEO, the Lion LYRA, the Lyre Ca.s.sIOPEIA, the Queen in her Chair SCORPIO, the Scorpion URSA MAJOR, the Great Bear URSA MINOR, the Little Bear VIRGO, the Virgin

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SKY IN SUMMER]

NOTE.--Every sky map is good for three months, in this way: If this is correct on June 1st at 10 P.M., it will be correct July 1st at 8 P.M., and August 1st at 6 P.M. This is because the stars rise four minutes earlier every night. Thus, after thirty days, any star will rise thirty times four minutes earlier, or 120 minutes, or two hours. Children need not learn all the Summer constellations. The most interesting are:

AURIGA, the Charioteer CANIS MAJOR, the Big Dog CYGNUS, the Swan LYRA, the Lyre SCORPIO, the Scorpion

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SKY IN AUTUMN]

NOTE.--This book tells how to find all the most interesting stars and constellations without maps, but many people prefer them. How to use star maps is explained under "The Sky in Winter." The Autumn constellations most interesting to children are:

AQUILA, the Eagle AURIGA, the Charioteer Ca.s.sIOPEIA, the Queen in Her Chair CYGNUS, the Swan LYRA, the Lyre PERSEUS, Which Has the Arc TAURUS, the Bull URSA MAJOR, the Great Bear URSA MINOR, the Little Bear