William Tyler Olcott

“ It was a spectacle the like of which no one might see again though he should spend on earth fifty lives. At the beginning the comet was like a plume of fire, shaped like a bird of paradise, but it soon brightened into a stupendous scimitar, brandished in the sunset, and when it swept over Arcturus the whole astronomical world was watching to see what would happen to the star. ”

“ This little group of stars, twinkling so timidly in the nights of autumn in the eastern heavens, links the races of mankind in closer relationship than any bonds save nature's. No wonder that they have inspired universal awe and admiration, that within this group of suns man has sought to find the very centre of the universe.
Among the Aztecs of South America we find the Pleiades the cynosure of all eyes, a nation trembling at their feet. ”

“ In a comparatively starless environment the twin stars, beloved of sailors, dominate the western sky and shine side by side like two eyes benignly set to keep a protecting watch upon the world. It is not the sailor alone whose fancy is pleased with the kindly vigil they seem to keep. A landsman, too, may have pleasanter dreams if he will but peep through the western window and exchange friendly glances with them before settling down for the night."
Pollux is now the brighter of the two stars, although three hundred years ago, Castor was probably the lucida of the constellation. ”

“ As they were deeply interested in the care of herds and flocks we naturally find that certain star groups represented to them pastoral scenes. These stellar pictures of the ancients are interesting as showing the changes wrought by the advance of progress and civilisation, and there must indeed have been a fascination in painting pictures on the widespread canvas of the night with a brush steeped in the bright-hued pigments of imagination.
Smyth alluded to the constellation Cepheus as "the Dog," and a ring of stars in this group was known to the Arabs as "a Pot." ”

“ Late in the spring the Bear, waking from her long winter sleep, leaves her rocky hillside den and descends to the ground in search of food. Instantly the sharp-eyed Chickadee perceives her, and being too small to undertake the pursuit alone, calls the other hunters to his aid. Together the seven start after the Bear, the Chickadee with the Pot being placed between two of the larger birds so that he may not lose his way. All the hunters are hungry and pursue eagerly, but throughout the summer the Bear flees across the northern horizon and the pursuit continues. ”

“ Here the rising beams of Sirius flashed down the long vista of the massive pylons, and illumined the inner recesses of the temple. What a wonderful sight there must have been enacted within that darkened edifice when, in the presence of a vast multitude silent in meditation, there suddenly appeared a beam of silver light, that laved the marble altar in a refulgence born of the depths of the infinite, a beam, although the watchers knew it not that started on its earthward journey eight and a half years before it greeted their eyes! ”

“ On early acquaintance the loneliness of the star, added to the sombre signs of approaching autumn, sometimes gives one a touch of melancholy, but its aspect when more familiar soon comes to suggest only sweetness and serenity, and a lover of Fomalhaut feels that a sustaining light has gone when, during the last of December, this beautiful star sinks gently down in the south-west and disappears from the evening sky not to return for more than seven months. ”

“ Cygnus is a splendid field for telescopes, great and small. Its chief object of beauty is the incomparably beautiful double star, Beta Cygni, also known as " Albireo," situated in the base of the Cross and in the beak of the Swan. Even in a small telescope the contrast in the colours of these two close set stars is well emphasised, and the sight of these suns, the one gold, the other blue, never fails to charm all who view them. ”

“ By two o'clock a.m., Aquila, Delphinus, and Sagittarius have risen, and at break of day Andromeda, Pegasus, and Capricornus can be seen if the student has had the courage to remain awake this length of time.
In no way can the seeming movement of the stars be better understood than by actual observation. The observer must bear in mind that the movement is an apparent one: that it is the earth that is moving and not the stars. He has only to think of the analogy of the moving train beside the one that is standing still, and the true state of affairs will at once be evident. ”

“ When the 'Royal Star' crosses high on the meridian in the vernal evenings, the imagination is thrown back almost the whole course of the history of the Aryan race, and the rays of Regulus bring again the dreams of Babylon and Nineveh, of Greece and Rome, of India, and of the star- watching deserts of Arabia. ”

“ Still other suns glitter above the bergs and field ice of the frozen polar seas, on scenes of frigid desolation, and some of the stars we nightly gaze upon are mingling their beams with the arc lights of our great and populous cities.
"Every point in the sky is directly above some point on the earth, and as is the proportion of a given area to the whole sky, so is the proportion of the area it overhangs to the whole surface of the earth." ”

“ It is the face of Antares whose red light shining through the heavy atmosphere is so diffused that it gives a rosy effect to the sky for a considerable distance around the star, like a miniature presentment of the sun as it rises on a hazy morning. ”

“ The mariners of the ancient and modern worlds have placed an equal faith in the guiding beams of this steadfast star. Phœnician barks and Roman triremes, the ships of the Spanish Armada, and those that bore the early adventurers and explorers over the unknown seas, as well as the canoes and rude dugouts of the savages of many lands, have all turned their prows alike in answer to its beckoning light. ”

“ They are the only two constellations that seem identical in design, and in these ancient constellations we see clearly a desire on the part of primitive man to place on record, for all the ages to read, the great fact of the triumph of man over the serpent, the symbol of the powers of evil.
Krishna, one of the most revered gods of India, is often represented as standing with one foot on a serpent's head, and holding it up by the tail, a reduplication of the figures and the ideas embodied in the constellation figures, Hercules and Ophiuchus. ”

“ What more gracious day's progress in beauty could there be than to travel with the eyes from the cheerful hepaticas dotting the soft ground among the trees to the round, white, silent blossoms of the dogwood fringing the late April woods, and thence, when the evening falls, to the bright yet gentle light of Arcturus in the sky, announcing the end of the purple twilight. ”

“ Fomalhaut is always associated in the mind of the star lover with Capella, the brilliant in the constellation Auriga, which rises far from it over the north-eastern horizon. As these two stars rise almost simultaneously, one naturally turns from a glimpse of one to the bright beams of the other. ”

“ Irmin was said to possess a ponderous chariot, in which he rode across the sky along the path which we know as the Milky Way, but which the ancient Germans called "Irmin's Way."
In the history of all nations and in all ages we find the Galaxy likened to a way, a road, or a pathway to the land of the hereafter.
Allen thinks that this universal idea may have come from the fancy that the heavenly way, crowded with stars, resembled the earthly road crowded with pilgrims. ”

“ Eridanus is an inconspicuous constellation, but on a clear night in midwinter, when the moon is absent from the sky, the stream can be traced without difficulty, spreading out like a great horseshoe south and west of the wellknown constellation Orion. ”

“ The constellation Orion has been the admiration of all ages, and vies with Ursa Major and the famous Pleiades in historical and mythological interest. It is beyond question the most brilliant of the constellations, containing as it does two stars of the first magnitude, and four of the second. With the exception of the "Dipper," the so-called "Belt of Orion" is probably the best known and most popular of all stellar objects.
The constellation is visible from every part of the globe, and the poets of all nations have sung its praises. Manilius pays the following tribute to the mighty hunter ”

“ Ophiuchus struggles with a writhing Serpent, and crushes underfoot the Scorpion, which in turn thrusts at him with its sting; the Hounds, driven on by the Herdsman, continually pursue and harass the Great Bear; the fierce monster of the deep, the Whale, seems eagerly looking for whom he may devour, while the champion Perseus, with drawn sword, stands ever ready to join in mortal combat ”

“ According to this explanation, the sun follows Eurydice, "the wide-spreading flush of the dawn, who has been stung by the serpent of night," into the regions of darkness. There he recovers Eurydice, but while he looks back upon her she fades before his gaze, as the mists of the morning vanish before the glory of the rising sun. ”

“ Through the winter the Bear's skeleton lies upon its back in the sky, but her life spirit has entered into another Bear who also lies upon her back in the den, invisible, sleeping the winter sleep. When the spring comes around, the Bear will again issue forth from the den, to be again pursued by the hunters, and so the drama keeps on eternally. ”

“ There is nothing of particular interest to be noted in this asterism. It does not appear on modern star charts and is considered obsolete.
So great is the distance that separates us from the stars that as for the great majority had they been blotted out of existence before the Christian era, we of to-day should still receive their light and seem to see them just as we do. When we scan the nocturnal skies we study ancient history. We do not see the stars as they are but as they were centuries on centuries ago. ”

“ When the air is steady and the companion can be well viewed, there is no finer sight among the double stars. The contrast in colours is beautifully distinct — fire-red and bright green. The little green star has been seen emerging from behind the moon ahead of its ruddy companion. ”

“ It certainly seems plausible that primitive man should have sought to record the greatest and most important events known to him for the benefit of posterity, and it may have occurred to some ancient patriarch, and possibly Noah, to inscribe his record on the enduring scroll of night, and burn the legend deep with the fire of the silver stars. ”

“ Benjamin has written a most interesting monograph on the sun in Taurus which the writer takes the liberty of quoting from, as it reveals much that is enlightening concerning the constellation, and the customs that have survived the ancient worship of this time-honoured star group:
"In all ages of the world the nations have hailed with delight the return of spring and the revivification of nature under the warmth and heat of the sun. This universal festival we know as May Day and it commemorates the entrance of the sun into the constellation Taurus at the vernal equinox 4000 b.c. ”

“ The The "V"-shaped group of stars in the constellation Taurus is known as "the Hyades," and has attracted the attention of all mankind. Its stars outline the face of the fierce Bull that lowers its massive head to gore the giant hunter Orion, and the ruddy first magnitude star Aldebaran, the lucida of the group, marks the eye of the enraged creature. ”

“ Aside from the fact of its surpassing brilliance, the fact that Sirius is visible from every habitable portion of the globe has served to make it from time immemorial the nocturnal cynosure of all the nations of the earth. ”

“ No group of stars known to astronomy has excited such universal attention as the little cluster of faint stars we know as "the Pleiades." In all ages of the world's history they have been admired and critically observed. Great temples have been reared in their honour. Mighty nations have worshipped them, and people far removed from each other have been guided in their agricultural and commercial affairs by the rising and setting of these six close-set stars. ”

“ Thus early in the history of man we find the stars all- important to his welfare. No course was pursued or plan adopted without first consulting the heavenly bodies. They governed alike the policies of nations and the actions of individuals. They ruled absolutely over the destinies of the high and lowly, the rich and poor, and horoscopes became a necessity of life, and divination the highest pursuit of man.
In Sabianism, or star worship, we have, therefore, the earliest form of religion, and in astrology and the adoration of the stars the progenitors of the modern science of astronomy. ”

“ Seen in the cool evenings of early fall, flashing its wonderful prismatic rays from the low eastern sky, it seems like a herald of old announcing the coming of a mighty host, the brilliant stellar pageant that graces our clear winter nights, and renders them gorgeous with light and life. ”

“ Vega is the second brightest star to be seen in this latitude, Sirius alone surpassing it in splendour. In spite of its great brilliance, Vega is not one of our near neighbours. According to Peck it is eighteen light years distant, some authorities say twenty-nine. If the distance from the earth to the sun is regarded as one foot, that from Vega would be 158 miles, and if our sun occupied the place of Vega, it would appear to us as a faint point of light just visible to the naked eye. ”

“ According to a French tale, the stars in the Milky Way are lights held by angel spirits to show mortals the way to heaven.
The Greeks called the Galaxy "the road to the Palace of Heaven." Along this road stand the palaces of the illustrious gods, while the common people of the skies live on either side of them.
The Algonquin Indians believed that this was the Path of Souls leading to the villages in the sun. As the spirits travel along the pathway their blazing camp-fires may be seen as bright stars. ”

“ Jupiter is the largest of all the planets in the solar system, and it is easily distinguished from the fixed stars because of its brilliancy and splendor, exceeding in brightness all the planets excepting Venus, and casting a perceptible shadow.
It moves slowly and majestically across the sky, advancing through the Zodiac at the rate of one constellation yearly. It is therefore a simple matter to forecast its position, for, in whatever constellation it is seen to-day, one year hence it will be seen equally advanced in the next constellation. ”

“ They say that when winter comes the Bear lazily sleeps, no longer guarding the westland from the cold of the ice gods and the white down of their mighty breathing, but, when the Bear, awakening, growls in the springtime and the answering thunder mutters, the strength of the ice gods being shaken, the reign of summer begins again. ”