Cygnus

“ Thus, in the constellation Cygnus, there is a star gradually changing its relation to our system, whose distance from ourselves (as Dr. Nichol tells us) is ascertained to be about six hundred and seventy thousand times our own distance from the sun: that is, neglecting minute accuracy, about six hundred and seventy thousand stages of one hundred million miles each. ”

“ And now we will turn to the east. Our next map shows Cygnus, a constellation especially remarkable for the large and striking figure that it contains, called the Northern Cross, Aquila the Eagle, the Dolphin, and the little asterisms Sagitta and Vulpecula. In consulting the map, the observer [55] is supposed to face toward the east. In Aquila the curious arrangement of two stars on either side of the chief star of the constellation, called Altair, at once attracts the eye. ”

“ Turn we next to the charming double Albireo, on the beak of Cygnus, about 36° above the horizon towards the west. The components are 341⁄2" apart, their magnitudes 3 and 6, their colours orange-yellow, and blue. It has been supposed (perhaps on insufficient evidence) that this star is merely an optical double. It must always be remembered that a certain proportion of stars (amongst those separated by so considerable a distance) must be optically combined only.
The star χ Cygni is a wide double (variable) star. ”

“ It probably has so small a mean density as not greatly to exceed, or perhaps barely to equal, our sun in mass. Now though the “new star” in Cygnus presented no measurable disc, and still shines as a mere blue point in the largest telescope, yet inasmuch as its spectrum associated it with the planetary and gaseous nebulæ, which we know to be much larger bodies than the stars, it must be regarded, in its present condition, as a planetary nebula, though a small one ”

“ Any hypothesis accounting for its existence in the spectrum of the faint blue starlike object into which the star in Cygnus has faded ought to be competent to explain its existence in the spectrum of those nebulæ. But this hypothesis certainly does not so explain its existence in the nebular spectrum. The nebulæ cannot be suns which have died out save for the light of gaseous matter surrounding them, for they are millions, or rather millions of millions, of times too large. ”

“ My fourth life, previous to my terrestrial one, was passed upon an immense annular planet belonging to the constellation Cygnus, situated in the zone of the Milky Way. This singular world is inhabited solely by trees.
Quærens. That is to say, that so far only plants are there, and neither animals nor intelligent speaking beings?
Lumen. Not exactly. There are only plants there, it is true. But in this vast world of plants there are vegetable races more advanced than those existing upon the Earth. There plants live as we do—feel, think, reason, and speak. ”

“ The 61st of Cygnus would be at four kilometres, Sirius at ten kilometres, the polar star at twenty-seven kilometres, etc.; and the immense majority of the stars would remain outside the department of the Seine. Well, to give to all these projectiles their relative motions, the Earth would take a year to run through its orbit of a centimetre radius, Jupiter twelve years to run through his of five centimetres, and Neptune one hundred and sixty-five years. The proper motions of the Sun and stars would be of the same nature ”

“ In the Denderah Zodiac it is named Tes-ark, which means this from afar.
Plate 20: CYGNUS (the Swan) It is a most brilliant and gorgeous asterism of 81 stars; one of the 1st or 2nd, six of the 3rd, twelve of the 4th magnitude, etc. It contains variable stars, five double stars, and one quadruple. The star marked “61 Cygni” is known as one of the most wonderful in the whole heavens. It consists of two stars which revolve about each other, and yet have a progressive motion common to each! ”

“ Some are single, but others are held together in pairs or groups by the force of gravitation. From their immense distance they appear fixed to us, but in reality they are flying in all directions at enormous velocities. Alpha, of the constellation Cygnus, for example, is coming towards us at a speed of 500 million leagues per annum, and some move a great deal faster. ”

“ Now, the object seen as a faint blue star showed the same spectrum as these gaseous nebulæ, or rather as the very faintest of these nebulæ. For most of them show three bright lines, and one or two even show four bright lines; only the faintest shine with absolutely monochromatic or one-tint light. The star in Cygnus now shines like these faintest of the gaseous nebulæ—that is, with a light which, under spectroscopic analysis, presents only one bright line. ”

“ The star in the Crown had shown the bright lines of hydrogen, superposed upon a faint rainbow-tinted spectrum, which was understood to signify that around a real, though probably a small, sun, some outburst of glowing hydrogen had taken place, the chief part of the star's new light being due to this outburst. The same bright hydrogen lines were seen also in the case of the star in Cygnus. ”

“ It varies from 4·8 to 7·8 with an irregular period. All the light changes can be observed with a good opera-glass.
Vulpecula, the Fox.—This modern constellation lies south of Cygnus, north of Sagitta and Delphinus, east of Hercules, and west of Pegasus. It was formed by Hevelius in 1660. One of its stars, 6 Vulpeculæ, is mentioned by Al-Sufi in describing the constellation Cygnus. Closely north-west of 32 Vulpeculæ is the short-period variable T Vulpeculæ. It varies from 5·5 to 6·2 magnitude, and its period is 4·436 days. ”

“ So in the case of our sun, the danger of an outburst such as has affected the stars in the Northern Crown and Cygnus is small enough when we estimate it by comparing the number of such accidents with the total number of stars, but vanishes almost into nothingness when we note that no insulated star like our sun seems hitherto to have undergone one of these tremendous catastrophes. ”

“ My destination was inter-system so I doubted if the picture would appear any place except in the files. I wasn't making an interstellar hop this time, as I usually did after a big job, it wasn't necessary. After a job a single world or a small system is too small for more work, but Beta Cygnus has a system of almost twenty planets all with terrafied weather. This planet, III, was too hot now, but the rest of the system was wide open. There was a lot of commercial rivalry within the system and I knew their police departments didn't co-operate too well. ”

“ I wish to use the small space remaining at present to indicate the place where another new star burst forth last November, so that any readers of these pages who have telescopes may know where to look for a sun which is now dying out, but was shining a few weeks ago as a third magnitude star. Fig. 8 presents a portion of the well-known constellation Cygnus or the Swan. Any star atlas will indicate the place of the lettered stars shown in the figure. The [66] constellation itself does not show at all well at this season of the year. ”

“ In the article entitled “Suns in Flames,” in my “Myths and Marvels of Astronomy,” before the startling evidence recently obtained from the star in Cygnus had been thought of, I thus indicated the probable effects of such an event:—“When the earth has passed through the richer portions (not the actual nuclei be it remembered) of meteor systems, the meteors visible from even a single station have been counted by tens of thousands, and it has been computed that millions must have fallen upon the whole earth. These were meteors following in the trains of very small comets. ”

“ From Cassiopeia's chair, three bright stars of which appear at the upper edge of the Plate, the Galaxy, forming two streams, descends south, passing partly through Lacerta on the left, and Cepheus on the right; at this last point it approaches nearest to the Polar Star, which is itself outside of the field of view. Then it enters Cygnus, where it becomes very complicated and bright, and where several large cloudy masses are seen terminating its left branch, which passes to the right, near the bright star Deneb, the leader of this constellation. ”

“ Cygnus or Cycnus, according to Ovid, was a relative of Phaëthon. While lamenting the unhappy fate of his kinsman on the banks of the Eridanus, he was changed by Apollo into a swan, and placed among the stars.
Sagittarius was said by the Greeks to be the Centaur Cheiron, the instructor of Peleus, Achilles [37] and Diomed. It is pretty certain, however, that all the zodiacal constellations are of Egyptian origin, and represent twelve Egyptian deities who presided over the months of the year. Thus Aries was Jupiter Ammon; Taurus, the bull Apis; Gemini, the inseparable gods Horus and Harpocrates ”

“ The latter is a very bright and remarkable streak, running south through Cygnus and Aquila, to become lost in a dim and sparsely starred region. From Cassiopeia a vivid branch proceeds to the chief star of Perseus, and faint streaks appear to continue the “feeler” towards the Hyades and the Pleiades. There are many other “feelers” of the same kind, and they are all of great interest, because they seem to show some sort of influence exercised by the Milky Way upon the whole starry universe. ”

“ Easton has made many hundred counts of stars in galactic regions of Cygnus and Aquila where the range of intensity of the light is very marked; in fact, the star density of the bright patches of the Galaxy is so far in excess of the density adjacent and just outside the Milky Way, that the conclusion is inevitable that this excess is due to the star clouds. ”

“ Underneath Cygnus we notice the small constellation Vulpecula. It contains a few objects worthy of attention, the first being the nebula 4532, the "dumb-bell nebula" of Lord Rosse. With the four-inch, and better with the five-inch, we are able to perceive that it consists of two close-lying tufts of misty light. Many stars surround it, and large telescopes show them scattered between the two main masses of the nebula. The star 11 points out the place where a new star of the third magnitude appeared in 1670. Σ 2695 is a close double, magnitudes six and eight, distance 1·4′′, p. ”

“ It is certain that, if our sun were caused to glow with far more than its present degree of heat, the gases whose increase of brightness would be most discernible from a distant [71] station (as a world circling around some remote star) would be just those gases which were glowing so resplendency around the star in Cygnus last November—or rather at the time when that light which reached us last November set out from the remote star in the Swan.
When we view the outburst of that remote sun in this way the thoughts suggested are not altogether satisfactory. ”

“ It is seldom that science has to regret a more important loss of opportunity than this. What we want specially to know is the nature of the spectrum given by this star when its light was yellow; and this we can now never know. Nor are the outbursts of new stars so common that we may quickly expect another similar opportunity, even if any number of other new stars should present the same series of phenomena as the star in Cygnus. ”

“ Easton that the centre of the Spiral Nebula is not exactly at the sun. The centre of the Milky Way is near that superb region of the galaxy which lies in Cygnus.
Thus, the significance of the spiral structure in the universe becomes greatly enhanced. The spirals abound in every part of the heavens; they are placed in every conceivable position and in every possible plane; they have every range in size from comparatively small objects, whose destiny is to evolve into a system like our solar system, up to stupendous objects which include a myriad of such systems. ”

“ These birds, which had brazen wings, beaks and claws, hovered over the stagnant waters of Lake Stymphalus, in Arcadia, and ravaged all the surrounding country. This praiseworthy deed may have been represented in the sky by the "bird" constellations, Cygnus, Lyra and Aquila, which hover near the stream of the Milky Way, and in the little arrow Sagitta, which lies not far away, but it is more than likely, according to the majority of the myths, that these constellations were named in honor of other things rather than to commemorate the deeds of Hercules. ”

“ There seems to be some law governing the distribution of the colored stars. The white stars appear to be most numerous, as a rule, in those constellations where bright stars are most abundant, for instance, in Orion, Cassiopeia, and Lyra; yellow and orange stars in large and ill-defined constellations, such as Cetus, Pisces, Hydra, Virgo, etc. The very reddish stars are most numerous in or near the Milky Way, and one portion of the Galaxy—between Aquila, Lyra, and Cygnus—was termed by Birmingham “the red region in Cygnus.” ”

“ These stars alone suggest a bird flying with outstretched wings. This is a region of birds, for the great Cross with Cygnus, the Swan, drifts down the Milky Way between the two Eagles. The "three birds" are most effective and easily located when seen on the meridian in midsummer, for they then form a large triangle across the star stream, Lyra and Aquila being at the edges of the stream and at the base of the triangle with the center of the Cross at its peak. ”

“ For instance, blue stars are never known to be solitary—they always have a companion, but why this should be so passes our comprehension. What is it in the constitution of a blue star which holds or attracts another? Whatever it may be, it is established by repeated instances that blue stars do not stand alone. In the constellation of Cygnus there are two stars, a blue and a yellow one, which are near enough to each other to be seen in the same telescope at the same time, and yet in reality are separated by an almost incredible number of billions of miles. ”