Stars Sentence Examples

The stars were brilliant this evening.

The sky was clear and stars bright.

Moon and stars were bright overhead.

The stars didn't shine quite so bright in the immortal world, and the sky didn't seem as endless.

The sky was dark, the stars plentiful and bright.

Bright stars shone out here and there in the sky.

The stars are called the earth's brothers and sisters.

He looked up to see the stars beginning to twinkle as the clouds moved out.

I suppose you feel so, too, when you gaze up to the stars in the stillness of the night, do you not?...

The stars are so far away that people cannot tell much about them, without very excellent instruments.

There were stars in the sky and the new moon shone out amid the smoke that screened it.

You see the stars and the moon instead of how dark the night is.

Posters of teen pop stars populated her cousin's wall.

A Cnossian didrachm exhibits on one side the labyrinth, on the other the Minotaur surrounded by a semicircle of small balls, probably intended for stars; it is to be noted that one of the monster' s names was Asterius.

That night they slept under the stars - Bordeaux a respectable distance from her, but close enough to assist if anything went wrong in the night.

The night was clear and cool, the sky a beautiful pageant of dark blue silk and brilliant stars, of streaking meteors and two glowing orbs.

But in OS measures index error can be eliminated by bisecting both stars with the same web (or different webs of known interval fixed on the same frame), and not employing the fixed web at all.

I miss the stars.

The moon is full, the sky full of stars.

The angle between two objects, such as stars or the opposite limbs of the sun, was measured by directing an arm furnished with fine " sights " (in the sense of the " sights " of a rifle) first upon one of the objects and then upon the other (q.v.), or by employing an instrument having two arms, each furnished with a pair of sights, and directing one pair of sights upon one object and the second pair upon the other.

She tossed her head back to stare at the stars.

The sounds of fighting grew faint and then disappeared.  The stream wound through the jungle until it reached a small waterfall that fed into a massive lake whose black surface reflected the stars and moon.  Katie slid down the hill beside the waterfall to the lake's edge, uncertain what to do.  Gabriel hadn't mentioned the stream ending or the lake.

These include the mutual distances of some of the stars in the Pleiades, a few observations of the apparent diameter of the sun, others of the distance of the moon from neighbouring stars, and a great number of measurements of the diameter of the moon.

It was used by him in his earliest observations of double stars (1779-1783); but, even in his hands, the measurements were comparatively crude, because of the difficulties he had to encounter from the want of a parallactic mounting.

For the measurement of wider stars he invented his lamp-micrometer, in which the components of a double star observed with the right eye were made to coincide with two lucid points placed io ft.

In the case of close double stars he estimated the distance in terms of the disk of the components.

The " beehive cluster " Praesepe in Cancer is an example of an easily resolved cluster composed of fairly bright stars.

About 10,000 stars altogether were dealt with in the above-mentioned investigations.

Balmer's formula received a striking confirmation when it was found to include the ultra-violet lines which were discovered by Sir William Huggins' in the photographic spectra of stars.

Aristotle could not know enough, physically, about Nature to understand its matter, or its motions, or its forces; and consequently he fell into the error of supposing a primary matter with four contrary primary qualities, hot and cold, dry and moist, forming by their combinations four simple bodies, earth, water, air and fire, with natural rectilineal motions to or from the centre of the earth; to which he added a quintessence of ether composing the stars, with a natural circular motion round the earth.

In order to obtain the declination a pivoted magnet is used to obtain the magnetic meridian, the geographical meridian being obtained by observations on the sun or stars.

Hence, however carefully a compass may be placed and subsequently compensated, the mariner has no safety without constantly observing the bearings of the sun, stars or distant terrestrial objects, to ascertain its deviation.

The regularity of their diurnal revolutions could not escape notice, and a good deal was known 2000 years ago about the motions of the sun and moon and planets among the stars.

He attained correct views as to the character of centrifugal force in connexion with Galileo's theory; and, when the fact of the variation of gravity (Galileo's acceleration) in different latitudes first became known from the results of pendulum experiments, he at once perceived the possibility of connecting such a variation with the fact of the earth's diurnal rotation relatively to the stars.

This is not inconsistent with the law of gravitation, for such estimates as have been made of planetary perturbations due to stars give results which are insignificant in comparison with quantities at present measurable.

Practically clocks are regulated by reference to the diurnal rotation of the earth relatively to the stars, which affords a measurement on the repetition principle agreeing with other methods, but more accurate than that given by any existing clock.

From about 1864 he occupied himself almost exclusively with spectrum analysis, both of stars (Catalogo delle stelle di cui si e determinato lo spettro luminoso, Paris, 1867, 8vo; "Sugli spettri prismatici delle stelle fisse," two parts, 1868, in the Atti della Soc. Ital.) and of the sun (Le Soleil, Paris, 1870, 8vo; 2nd ed., 1877).

The Godhead was really one; it was the soul of the eternal world, displaying its beneficence on the earth, as well as in the sun and stars (ii.12 seq., 154 seq.).

In the middle ages it was a common practice for sovereigns and princes to dub each other knights much as they were afterwards, and are now, in the habit of exchanging the stars and ribbons of their orders.

The ribbon and badges of the knights grand cross (civil and military) and the stars are illustrated on Plate II., figs.

The badges, stars and ribbons of the knights grand commanders of the two orders are illustrated on Plate III., figs.

From 1855 to 1859 he acted as director of the Dudley observatory at Albany, New York; and published in 1859 a discussion of the places and proper motions of circumpolar stars to be used as standards by the United States coast survey.

This was followed by a zone-catalogue of 73,160 stars (1884), and a general catalogue (1885) compiled from meridian observations of 32,448 stars.

The pious Nosairi takes his rank among the stars, but the body of the impious undergoes many transformations.

A further extension is given by some writers, who use the term as synonymous with the religions of primitive peoples, including under it not only the worship of inanimate objects, such as the sun, moon or stars, but even such phases of primitive philosophy as totemism.

So little was the scientific conception of the solar system familiar to Epicurus that he could reproach the astronomers, because their account of an eclipse represented things otherwise than as they appear to the senses, and could declare that the sun and stars were just as large as they seemed to us.

The stars in their courses fought against him, and at the time of his death he saw how far beyond his power were the forces with which even Charles had been unable to contend.

Professor Petrie has indeed suggested, chiefly on chronological grounds, that a table of stars on the ceiling of the Ramesseum temple and another in the tomb of Rameses VI.

The titles of several temple books are preserved recording the movements and phases of the sun, moon and stars.

On the different days of the year each hour was determined by a fixed star culminating or nearly culminating in it, and the position of these stars at the time is given in the tables as in the centre, on the left eye, on the right shoulder, &c. According to the texts, in founding or rebuilding temples the north axis was determined by the same apparatus, and we may condude that it was the usual one for astronomical observations.

Accordingly, as soon as all the great planets had disappeared, a new constellation was perceived to have risen, and all the stars in it had been lighted by the enthusiasm of Brandes.

The principal fruit of the observations was a catalogue of about a thousand stars, the places of which were determined by the methods usually employed in the 16th century, connecting a fundamental star by means of Venus with the sun, and thus finding its longitude and latitude, while other stars could at any time be referred to the fundamental star.

Just as whatsoever stars there be, their radiance avails not the sixteenth part of the radiance of the moon.

This group is particularly rich in bright stars, and is full of nebulosity, but there are fewer faint stars than in equal areas of the surrounding sky; the central star is Alcyone (3rd magnitude); PleIone and Atlas are also of the 3rd magnitude.

The people had a knowledge of the stars, of the rising and setting of the constellations at different seasons of the year; by this means they determined the favourable season for making a voyage and directed their course.

In many localities, especially in Imbabura, pottery and various objects are found belonging to the pre-Colombian period, among which five and six rayed stars (casse-tetes) are very numerous.

Those who supposed astronomy to inspire religious awe were horrified to hear the stars compared to eruptive spots on the face of the sky.

Anion's lyre and the dolphin were translated to the stars.

In the catalogues of Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe, and Hevelius, eight stars are mentioned; but recent uranographic surveys have greatly increased this number.

In Ptolemy's catalogue thirteen stars are described.

Ptolemy catalogues twenty-three stars, Tycho Brahe twenty-eight, Hevelius fifty-two.

Days are distinguished as solar, sidereal or lunar, according as the revolution is taken relatively to the sun, the stars or the moon.

His detection of considerable errors in the tables then in use led him to the conclusion that a more accurate ascertainment of the places of the fixed stars was indispensable to the progress of astronomy; and, finding that Flamsteed and Hevelius had already undertaken to catalogue those visible in northern latitudes, he assumed to himself the task of making observations in the southern hemisphere.

He returned to England in November 1678, having by the registration of 341 stars won the title of the "Southern Tycho," and by the translation to the heavens of the "Royal Oak," earned a degree of master of arts, conferred at Oxford by the king's command on the 3rd of December 1678, almost simultaneously with his election as fellow of the Royal Society.

Thus, because Democritus announced that the Milky Way is composed of vast multitudes of stars, it has been maintained that he could only have been led to.

Thus also the sun, moon and stars may be made to descend hither in appearance, and to be visible over the heads of our enemies, and many things of the like sort, which persons unacquainted with such things would refuse to believe."

Where accurate differential observations or photographs involving other than instantaneous exposures have to be made, the additional condition is required that the optical axis of the telescope shall accurately and automatically follow the object under observation in spite of the apparent diurnal motion of the heavens, or in some cases even of the apparent motion of the object relative to neighbouring fixed stars.

Sir David Gill tested the equatorial coude on double stars at the Paris Observatory in 1884, and his last doubts as to the practical value of the instrument were dispelled.

The largest refracting telescope yet made, viz., that constructed by Gautier for the Paris exhibition of 1900, was arranged on this plan (type F), the stars' rays being reflected along the horizontal axis re rac or of a telescope provided with visual and with photo graphic object-glasses of 49-in.

Also, if the axis is made to revolve at half the apparent diurnal motion of the stars, the image of the celestial sphere, viewed by reflection from such a moving mirror, will appear at rest at every point - hence the name coelostat applied to the apparatus.

Thus, any fixed telescope directed towards the mirror of a properly adjusted coelostat in motion will show all the stars in the field of view at rest; or, by rotating the polar axis independently of the clockwork, the observer can pass in review all the stars visible above the horizon whose declinations come within the limits of his original field of view.

Therefore, to observe stars of a different declination it will be necessary either to shift the direction of the fixed telescope, keeping its axis still pointed to the coelostat mirror, or to employ a second mirror to reflect the rays from the coelostat mirror along the axis of a fixed telescope.

A pair of stars of known declination are selected such that their zenith distances, when on the meridian, are nearly equal and opposite, and whose right ascensions differ by five or ten minutes of time.

The value of "one revolution of the screw in seconds of arc" can be determined either by observing at transit the difference of zenith distance of two stars of known declination in terms of the micrometer screw, the instrument remaining at rest between their transits; or by measuring at known instants in terms of the screw, the change of zenith distance of a standard star of small polar distance near the time of its greatest elongation.

The almucantar was therefore used only to observe the vertical transits of stars in different azimuths over fixed horizontal webs, without touching the telescope.

The interval between the true trails, measured at right angles to the direction of the trails, obviously corresponds to the difference of zenith distance of the two stars.

The essential feature of this astral theology is the assumption of a close link between the movements going on in the heavens and occurrences on earth, which led to identifying the gods and goddesses with heavenly bodies - planets and stars, besides sun and moon - and to assigning the seats of all the deities in the heavens.

To read the signs of the heavens was therefore to understand the meaning of occurrences on earth, and with this accomplished it was also possible to foretell what events were portended by the position and relationship to one another of sun, moon, planets and certain stars.

At the same time, since the invoking of the divine powers was the essential element in the incantations, in order to make the magic formulae as effective as possible, a large number of the old local deities are introduced to add their power to the chief ones; and it is here that the astral system comes into play through the introduction of names of stars, as well as through assigning attributes to the gods which clearly reflect the conception that they have their seats in the heavens.

In another division of the religious literature of Babylonia which is largely represented in Assur-bani-pal's collection - the myths and legends - tales which originally symbolized the change of seasons, or in which historical occurrences are overcast with more or less copious admixture of legend and myth, were transferred to the heavens, and so it happens that creation myths, and the accounts of wanderings and adventures of heroes of the past, are referred to movements among the planets and stars as well as to occurrences or supposed occurrences on earth.

With the development of observational astronomy the sidereal universe was arbitrarily divided into areas characterized by special assemblages of stars; these assemblages were named asterisms by Ptolemy, who termed the brightest stars "of the fi rst magnitude," and the progressively fainter Stars.

The faintest stars visible to the naked eye on clear nights are of about the sixth magnitude; exceptionally keen, well-trained eyes and clear moonless nights are necessary for the perception of stars of the seventh magnitude.

Stars whose brightness fluctuates are called variable stars.

Many of these stars seem to vary quite irregularly; the changes of magnitude do not recur in any orderly way.

Of the periodic variable stars, the lengths of the periods range from 3 hours 12 minutes, which is the shortest yet determined, to 61o days, the longest.

There is some over-lapping of these two classes as regards length of period, and it is doubtful in which class some stars, whose periods are between io days and 150 days, should be placed; but the two classes are quite distinct physically, and the variability depends on entirely different causes.

Stars having this type of spectrum are always variable, and a large proportion of the more recently discovered long-period variables have been detected through their characteristic spectrum.

It is natural to compare the periodic outbursts occurring in these stars with the outbursts of activity on the sun, which have a period of about eleven years.

In both cases the rise to a maximum is more rapid than the decline to a minimum, and in fact some of the minor peculiarities of the sunspot curve are closely imitated by the light-curves of variable stars.

On the other hand, the variations in the light of the sun must be very small compared with the enormous fluctuations in the light of variable stars.

Moreover, the solar period (II years) is far outside the limits of the periods of 1 Variable stars (except those sufficiently bright to have received special names) are denoted by the capital letters R to Z followed by the name of the constellation.

Numerous counts of the number of stars visible to the naked eye have been made; it is doubtful whether more than 2000 can be seen at one time from any position on the earth.

The recognition of stars is primarily dependent on their brightness or " magnitude "; and it is clear that stars admit of classification on this basis.

It is therefore perhaps misleading actually to class the sun with them; but it seems highly probable that whatever cause produces the periodic outbursts of spots and faculae on our sun differs only in degree from that which, in stars under a different physical condition of pressure and temperature, results in the gigantic conflagrations which we have been considering.

In the Algol variables one of the component stars is dark (that is to say, dark in comparison with the other), and once in each revolution, passing between us and the bright component, partially hides it.

Two stars are supposed to revolve about one another nearly or actually in contact.

In such a system the tidal forces must be very great, and under their influence the stars will not be spherical, but will be elongated in the direction of the line joining their centres.

When the line of centres is at right angles to our line of sight, the stars present to us their greatest apparent surface, and therefore send us the maximum light.

Supposing that the two stars are of unequal surface brilliancy, the magnitude at minimum will depend on which of the two stars is the nearer to us, accordingly there are two unequal minima in each revolution.

When the two stars are of equal brilliancy the minima are equal; this is the case in variables of the Geminorum type.

A large eccentricity also produces an unsymmetrical light variation, the minimum occurring at a time not midway between two maxima; stars of this character are called Cepheid variables, after the typical star S Cephei.

Ellipsoidal, pear-shaped or hour-glassshaped stars would all give rise to the phenomena of a short-period variable, and doubtless examples of these intermediate forms exist.

Thus the cluster Messier 5 was found at Harvard to contain 185 variables out of 900 stars examined.

According to Miss Agnes Clerke there are records of ten such stars appearing between 134 B.C. and A.D.

For nearly three centuries after these two remarkable stars no nova attained a brilliancy greater than that of the ordinary stars, until in 1901 Nova Persei appeared.

Two possible explanations of the phenomena of temporary stars have been held.

The collision theory supposes that the outburst is the result of a collision between two stars or between a star and a swarm of meteoric or nebulous matter.

In many cases, however, two or more stars are really connected, and their distance from one another is (from the astronomical standpoint) small.

But these cases form a very small proportion of the total number of double stars.

In many other double stars the two components have very nearly the same proper motion.

Unless this is a mere coincidence, it implies that the two stars are nearly at the same distance from us.

We can therefore infer that the two stars are really comparatively close together, and, moreover, since they have the same proper motion, that they remain close together.

Several double stars were observed during the 17th century, Ursae Majoris being the first on record.

In 1784 Christian Mayer published a catalogue of all the double stars then known, which contained 89 pairs.

Struve at Dorpat examined 120,000 stars, and found 3112 double stars whose distance apart did not exceed 32".

These systems appear as a connecting link between short-period variable stars on the one hand and telescopic double stars on the other.

Stars of the class to which the Algol type of variables belongs will appear to us to vary only in the exceptional case when the plane of the orbit passes so near our sun that one body appears to pass over the other and so causes an eclipse.

Whilst there is thus no well-defined lower limit to the dimensions of systems of two stars, on the other hand we cannot set any superior limit either to the number of stars which shall form a system or to the dimensions of that system.

No star is altogether removed from the attractions of its neighbours, and there are cases where some sort of connexion seems to relate stars which are widely separated in space.

It is difficult to understand what may be the connexion between stars so widely separated; from the equality of their motions they must have been widely separated for a very long period.

Of multiple stars the most famous is 0 Orionis, situated near the densest part of the great Orion nebula.

It .consists of four principal stars and two faint companions.

From the more complex systems of this kind, we pass to the consideration of starclusters, which are systems of stars in which the components are very numerous.

The Hercules cluster is of this form; another example is Centauri, in which over 6000 stars have been counted, comprised within a circle of about 40' diameter.

These clusters present many unsolved problems. Thus Perrine, from an examination of ten globular clusters (including Messier 13 and Centauri), has found in each case that the stars can be separated into two classes of magnitudes.

About one-third of the stars are between magnitudes 11 and 13, and the remaining two-thirds are between magnitudes 15.5 and 16.5.

Stars of magnitudes intermediate between these two groups are almost entirely absent.

Thus each cluster seems to consist of two kinds of stars, which we may distinguish as bright and faint; the bright stars are all approximately of one standard size, and the faint stars of another standard size and brightness.

The mutual gravitation of a large number of stars crowded in a comparatively small space must be considerable, and the individual stars must move in irregular orbits under their mutual attractions.

On examining the stars telescopically, many which appear single to the unaided eye are found to be composed of two or more stars very close together.

Of the first magnitude red stars Antares is the most deeply coloured, Betelgeux,.Aldebaran and Arcturus being successively less conspicuously red.

Systematic study of red stars dates from the publication in 1866 of Schjellerup's Catalogue, containing a list of 280 of them.

The two components of double stars often exhibit complementary colours.

As a rule contrasted colours are shown by pairs having a bright and a faint component which are relatively wide apart; brilliant white stars frequently have a blue attendant - this is instanced in the case of Regulus and Rigel.

The occurrence of change, either periodic or irregular, in the colour of individual stars, has been suspected by many observers; but such a colour-variability is necessarily very difficult to establish.

When examined with the spectroscope the light of the stars is found to resemble generally that of the sun.

The great majority of the visible stars belong to these first two types.

These stars are also believed to have a comparatively low surface temperature, and the bands are attributed to the presence of compounds of carbon.

The former are often called " Orion " stars, as all the brighter stars in that constellation with the exception of Betelgeux belong to the helium type.

Helium stars are generally considered to be the hottest and most luminous (in proportion to size) of all the stars.

The " Procyon " or calcium stars form a transition between Type I.

Finally, a fifth type has been added, the Wolf-Rayet stars; these show a spectrum crossed by the usual dark lines and bands, but showing also bright emission bands of blue and yellow light.

About ioo Wolf-Rayet stars are known, of which y Velorum is the brightest; they are confined to the region of the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds.

Stars of the different types are therefore not necessarily of different chemical constitution, but rather are in different physical conditions, and it is generally believed that every star in the course of its existence passes through stages corresponding to all (or most of) the different types.

The stars are known to be continually losing enormous quantities of energy by radiating their heat into space.

The greatest temperature attained is not the same for all stars, but depends on the mass of the star.

If the latter are considered to be in an early state this presents no difficulty; but if both Antarian and carbon stars are held to be evolved from solar stars, we may consider them to be, not successive, but parallel stages of development, the chemical constitution of the star deciding whether it shall pass into the third or fourth type.

The WolfRayet stars must probably be assigned to the earliest period of evolution; they are perhaps semi-nebulous.

The mean density of the sun is about 13 times that of water; but many of the stars, especially the brighter ones, have much lower densities and must be in a very diffused state.

When evolution to that which is taking place in double stars; the latter appear to be separating from a single original mass and the former condensing into one.

The brighter stars show a marked variety of colour in their light, and with the aid of a telescope a still greater diversity is noticeable.

It is, the orbit and periodic time is known, and also the parallax, the masses of the stars can be found.

The Orion stars have the highest temperature of all and have admittedly the greatest surfaceluminosity, but the extreme brilliancy of i Orionis in proportion to its mass must be mainly due to a small density.

There are many stars, however, of which the brightness is less than that of the sun in proportion to the mass.

It may be that these fainter components are still in the stage when the temperature is rising, and the luminosity is as yet comparatively small; but it is not impossible that the massive stars (owing to their greater gravitation) pass through the earlier stages of evolution more rapidly than the smaller stars.

Formerly attempts were made to determine parallaxes by measuring changes in the absolute right ascensions and declinations of the stars from observations with the meridian circle.

Nowadays the determination is more usually made by measuring the displacement of the star relatively to the stars surrounding it.

The quantity determined by these methods is the relative parallax between the star measured and the stars with which it is compared.

To obtain the true parallax, the mean parallax of the comparison stars must be added to this relative parallax.

It is, however, fair to assume that the comparison stars will rarely have a parallax as great as o oi "; for it must be remembered that it is quite the exception for a star taken at random to have an appreciable parallax; particularly if a star has an ordinarily small proper motion, it is likely to be very distant.

Still exceptional cases will occur where a comparison star is even nearer than the principal star; it is one of the advantages of the photographic method that it involves the use of a considerable number of comparison stars, whereas in the heliometric method usually only two stars, chosen symmetrically one on each side of the principal star, are used.

In the table are collected the parallaxes and other data of all stars for which the most probable value of the parallax exceeds 0.20".

Although much work has been done recently in measuring parallaxes, the number of stars included in such a list has not been increased, but rather has been considerably diminished; many large parallaxes, which were formerly provisionally accepted, have been reduced on revision.

For one or two of the more famous stars such as a Centauri the probable error is less than so oi"; but for others in the list it ranges up to X0.05".

The stars selected to be examined for parallax are usually either the brightest stars or those with an especially large proper motion.

These two stars must have an intrinsic brilliancy enormously greater than that of the sun, for if the sun were removed to such a distance (parallax o oi"), it would appear to be of about the tenth magnitude.

Although the parallaxes hitherto measured have added greatly to our general knowledge of stellar distances and absolute luminosities of stars, a collection of results derived by various observers choosing specially selected stars is not suitable for statistical discussion.

The stars chosen were those with centennial proper motions greater than 40", observable at Yale, and not hitherto attacked.

It is greatly to be desired that a general survey of the heavens, or cf typical regions of the heavens, should be made with a view to determining all the stars which have an appreciable parallax.

If three plates (or three sets of exposures on one plate) are taken at intervals of six months, when the stars in the region have their maximum parallactic displacements, the first and third plates serve to eliminate the proper motion of the star, and the detection of a parallax is easy.

We should learn perhaps the distribution and luminosities of the stars within a sphere of radius sixty light years (corresponding to a parallax of about 0.05"), but of the structure of the million-fold greater system of stars, lying be y ond this limit, yet visible in our telescopes, we should learn nothing except by analogy.

Fortunately the study of proper motions teaches us with some degree of certainty something of the general mean distances and distribution of these more distant stars, though it cannot tell us the distances of individual stars.

There is another method of determining stellar distances, which is applicable to a few double stars.

Proper Motions of Stars.-The work of cataloguing the stars and determining their exact positions, which is being pursued on so large a scale, naturally leads to the determination of their proper motions.

The problem is greatly complicated by the fact that the equator and equinox, to which the observed positions of the stars must be referred, are not stationary in space, and in fact the movements of these planes of reference can only be determined by a discussion of the observations of stars.

Halley was the first to suspect from observation the proper motions of the stars.

It was early realized that the proper motions of the stars were changes of position relative to the sun, and that, if the sun had any motion of its own as compared with the surrounding stars as a whole, this would be shown by a general tendency of the apparent motions of the stars to be directed away from the point to which the sun was moving.

These stars include most of the brighter ones visible in the latitude of Greenwich, ranging down to about the seventh magnitude.

The results are given in his Prelimina, y General Catalogue (1910), which comprises the motions of 6188 stars fairly uniformly distributed over the sky, including all the stars visible to the naked eye.

Bossert's catalogue (Paris Observations, 1890), which consist of lists of stars of large proper motion determined from a variety of sources.

In the table is given a list of the stars now known to have an annual proper motion of more than 3".

The faintness of the majority of the stars appearing in this list is noteworthy.

The majority of the stars have far smaller proper motions than these.

Only 24% of the stars of Auwers-Bradley have proper motions exceeding to" per century, and 51% exceeding 5" per century.

With catalogues containing fainter stars the proportion of large proper motions is somewhat smaller, thus the corresponding percentages for the Groombridge stars are 12 and 31 respectively.

Several stars appear to have speeds exceeding Ioo m.

When the proper motions of a considerable number of stars are collected and examined, a general systematic tendency is noticed.

The stars as a whole are found to be moving The Sofa, towards a point somewhere in or near the constellation Motion.

The motions of individual stars, it is true, vary widely, but if the mean motion of a number of stars is considered this tendency is always to be found.

Accordingly this mean motion of the stars relative to the sun has been more generally regarded from another point of view as a motion (in the opposite direction-towards the constellation Lyra) of the sun relatively to the stars.

In what follows we shall speak of this relative motion as a motion of the sun or of the stars indifferently, for there is no real distinction between the two conceptions.

Although his data were the proper motions of only seven stars, he indicated a point near X Herculis not very far from that found by modern researches.

Again in 1805 from Maskelyne's catalogue of the proper motions of 36 stars (published in 1790), he found the position, R.A.

The systematic tendency of the proper motions is so marked that the motions of a very few stars are quite sufficient to fix roughly the position of the solar apex; but attempts to fix its position to within a few degrees have failed, notwithstanding the many thousands of determined proper motions now available.

The motion of the sun relative to the stars depends on what stars are selected as representative.

There is no a priori reason to expect the same result from the different classes of stars, such as the brighter or fainter, northern or southern, nearer or more distant, Solar type or Sirian stars.

There is for example some evidence that the declination of the solar apex is really increased when the motion is referred to fainter stars.

Having regard to the special precautions taken to eliminate systematic error, and to the fact that the stars used were distributed nearly equally over both hemispheres, it is fair to conclude that this is the most accurate determination yet made.

Most of the above investigators, besides giving a general result, have determined the apex separately for bright and faint stars, for stars of greater or less proper motion, and in some cases for stars of Sirian and Solar spectra.

Regarded as a linear velocity, the parallactic motion is the same for all stars, being exactly equal and opposite to the solar motion; but its amount, as measured by the corresponding angular displacement of the star, is inversely proportional to the distance of the star from the earth, and foreshortening causes it to vary as the sine of the angular distance from the apex.

Campbell from the radial motions of 280 stars found the velocity to be 20 kilometres per second with a probable error of 12 km.

This result depends on the northern stars only.

This result, while it does not afford any means of determining the parallaxes of individual stars, enables us to determine the mean parallax of a group of stars, if we may assume their peculiar motions practically to cancel one another.

In researches on the solar motion the assumption is almost always made that the motions of the stars relatively to one another - the peculiar motions - are at random.

Naturally exceptional regions must be recognized; for example, a connected system such as the Pleiades, whose stars have the same proper motion, must constitute an exception.

Proctor found that between Aldebaran and the Pleiades most of the stars have a motion positive in right ascension and negative in declination, a phenomenon which he designated " star-drift."

The stars composing this all have equal and parallel motions; about 40 stars brighter than the seventh magnitude are known to belong to it.

The group consisting of five stars of Ursa Major together with Sirius has already been alluded to; another very marked group of 16 stars in Perseus, all of the Helium type of spectrum, form a similar association.

Spectroscopic evidence has indicated that most of the stars of Orion are associated, and share nearly the same motion (or rather, in this case, absence of motion).

But, whilst recognizing the existence of local drifts and systems, and admitting the possibility of relative motion between the nearer and more distant, or other classes of stars, it is;only recently that astronomers have seriously doubted the correctness of the hypothesis of random distribution of stellar motions as at least a rough representation of the truth.

The Streams. motion of the stars in the mean towards Canis Major is thus a resultant motion, which, when examined more minutely, is found to be due to the intermingling of two great streams of stars moving in very different directions.

These two streams or drifts prevail in every part of the sky examined, and contain nearly equal numbers of stars; that is to say, in whatever part of the sky we look about half the stars are found to belong to one and half to the other of the two great drifts.

This hypothesis of two star-drifts does not imply that all the stars move in one or other of two directions.

The stars have on this theory random peculiar motions in addition to the motion of the drift to which they belong, just as on the older theory the stars have peculiar motions in addition to the solar or parallactic motion shared by all of them.

The older one - which may be called the " one-drift " hypothesis, since according to it the stars appear to form a single drift moving away from the solar apex - requires that the apparent directions of motion should be so distributed that fewest stars are moving directly towards the solar apex, and most stars along the great circle away from the solar apex, the number decreasing symmetrically, for directions inclined on either side of this great circle, according to a law which can be calculated.

The deviation is unmistakable; in general the direction from the solar apex is not the one in which most stars are moving; and, what is even more striking, the directions, in which most and fewest stars respectively move, are not by any means opposite to one another.

Our first inquiry is whether the universe extends indefinitely in all directions, or whether there are limits beyond which the stars Limits of are not distributed.

It can be shown that, if the density of distribution of the stars through infinite space is nowhere less than a certain limit (which may be as small as we please), the total amount of light received from them (assuming that there is no absorption of light in space) would be infinitely great, so that the background of the sky would shine with a dazzling brilliancy.

We therefore conclude that beyond a certain distance there is a thinning out in the distribution of the stars; the stars visible in our telescopes form a universe having a more or less defined boundary; and, if there are other systems of stars unknown to us in the space beyond, they are, as it were, isolated from the universe in which we are.

Another line of reasoning indicates that the boundary of the universe is not immeasurably distant, and that the thinning out of the stars is quite perceptible with our telescopes.

If the stars were all of the same intrinsic brightness it is evident that the comparison of the number of stars of successive magnitudes would show directly where the decreased density of distribution began.

The star-gauges of the Herschels exhibit a similar result; the Herschels counted the number of stars visible with their powerful telescopes in different regions of the sky, and thus formed comparative estimates of the density of the stars extending to a very high magnitude.

In general, the fainter the stars included in the discussion the more marked is their crowding towards the galactic plane.

Various considerations tend to show that this apparent crowding does not imply a really greater density or clustering of the stars in space, but is due to the fact that in these directions we look through a greater depth of stars before coming to the boundary of the stellar system.

Struve developed the view that the stars are contained in a comparatively thin stratum bounded by two parallel planes.

Thus the figure represents a section the (ideally simplified) uni verse cut perpendicular to C P' D the planes AB and CD between which the stars are contained, 1 This number is the 3/2th power of the ratio of the brightness of stars differing by a unit magnitude.

Imagine this stratum to be uniformly filled with stars (of course in the actual universe instead of sharply defined boundaries AB and CD, we shall have a gradual thinning out of the stars) it follows that in the two directions SP and SP' the fewest stars will be seen; these then are the directions of the galactic poles.

As we consider a direction such as SQ farther and farther from the pole the boundary of the universe in that direction becomes more and more remote so that more stars are seen, and finally in the directions SR and SR' in the galactic plane, the boundary is perhaps beyond the limits of our telescopes.

These are zone for zone very nearly equal; the slight excess of stars in the southern hemisphere perhaps implies that the sun is a little north of the central position.

If, instead of considering the whole mass of stars, attention is directed to those of large proper motion, which are therefore in the mean relatively near us, the crowding to the galactic plane is much less noticeable, if not indeed entirely absent.

Thus Kapteyn found that the Bradley stars having proper motions greater than 5" per century were evenly distributed over the sky.

Dyson and Thackeray's tables show the same result for the Groombridge stars down to magnitude 6.5; but the fainter stars (with centennial proper motions greater than 5") show a marked tendency to draw towards the galactic circle.

It is only when some of the stars considered are more remote and lie outside this sphere (but of course between the two planes) that there is a galactic crowding.

We infer that nearly all the stars down to magnitude 6.5, whose proper motions exceed 5", are at a distance from the sun less than SP, whilst of the fainter stars with equally great proper motions a large proportion are at a distance greater than SP. This result enables us to form some sort of idea of the distance SP.

On considering the distribution of the stars according to their spectra, it appears that the Type II.

The result of course only applies to the brighter stars, for we have very little knowledge of the spectra 'of stars fainter than about magnitude 7.5.

Thus we see that the effect of limiting the magnitude to 3.5 is that the hydrogen stars are now practically all within the sphere SP, and it is only the helium stars, whose absolute luminosity is still greater, that are more widely distributed.

There can be little doubt that these stars belong to the Milky Way cluster, so that their presence is a property of the cluster rather than of the galactic plane in general.

It does not, however, seem probable that their apparent anti-galactic tendency has such a significance; in the Magellanic Clouds spiral nebulae are very abundant, a fact which shows that there is no essential antipathy between the stars and the spiral nebulae.

A glance at the Milky Way, with its sharply defined irregular boundaries, its clefts and diverging spur, is almost sufficient to assure us that it is a real cluster of stars, and does not merely indicate the directions in which the universe extends farthest.

Nevertheless the Milky Way contains a fair proportion of lucid stars, for these are considerably more numerous in the bright patches of the Milky Way than in the rifts and dark spaces.

It has been seen that the parallaxes afford little information as to the distribution of the main bulk of the stars and that the chief evidence on this point must be obtained indirectly from their proper motions.

As has been explained the mean distance of a group of stars can be readily determined from the parallactic motion, which, when not foreshortened, is approximately four times the parallax; but to obtain a complete knowledge of the distribution of stars it is necessary to know, not merely the mean parallax of the group, but also the frequency law, i.e.

The comparative nearness of the stars of the solar type, which we have had occasion to allude to, is confirmed by the fact that their proper motions are on the average much larger than those of the Sirian stars.

Kapteyn finds that magnitude for magnitude, the absolute brightness of the solar stars is only one-fifth of that of the Sirian stars, so that in the mean they must be at less than half the distance.

As the numbers of known stars of the two types are nearly equal, it is clear that, at all events in our immediate neighbourhood, the solar stars must greatly outnumber the Sirian.

Clerke's The System of the Stars (2nd ed., 1905), which contains full references to original papers; Problems in Astrophysics, by the same author,, may also be consulted.

The following works of reference and catalogues deal with special branches of the subject; for variable stars, Chandler's ” Third Catalogue," Astronomical Journ.

For double stars see Burnham's General Catalogue (1907), and Lewis, Memoirs of the R.A.S., vol.

The rule was strictly enforced and with the most conspicuous results, so that little more than 1% of "stars" have been re-convicted when once more at large.

For administrative convenience the "stars" - whose name comes from the scrap of crimson cloth worn on cap and jacket sleeve - have been generally concentrated at Portland, and employed in labours specially allotted to them, for the most part demanding a higher rate of intelligence than the general average shown by convicts.

Moulders, blacksmiths, carpenters, tinsmiths, stonemasons, bookbinders, painters and various other trades and handicrafts are the peculiar province of the "stars."

The intermediate class takes those not previously convicted but deemed unsuitable as "stars" from antecedents and generally unsatisfactory character.

When we have shaken ourselves free of the prejudice that all stars are first seen in the East, Oriental attempts at analysis of the structure of thought may be treated as negligible.

Then he draws on a wooden board a set of hieroglyphs in chalk, and his dexterity in counting or recounting the stars under whose region or influence the child is declared to be born is marvelled at by the superstitious creatures thronging around him.

The wedding day having been fixed by an astrologer, who consults the stars for a happy season, a Parsee priest goes.

His great contribution to astronomy dates from 1866, when he showed that meteors or shooting stars traverse space in cometary orbits, and, in particular, that the orbits of the Perseids and Comet III., 1862, and of the Leonids and Comet I., 1866, were practically the same.

He next worked on the double stars, but his results have only been partially published.

Here he devoted three years to a survey of the zone of the heavens within 9 degrees of the North Pole, the results of which are contained in his Redhill Catalogue of 3735 Stars.

At the international conference, which met at Paris in 1896 for the purpose of elaborating a common system of constants and fundamental stars to be employed in the various national ephemerides, Newcomb took a leading part, and at its suggestion undertook the task of determining a definite value of the constant of precession, and of 1 Lionville, t.

After his retirement from official life he published an excellent popular treatise on The Stars (1901).

This goat having broken off one of its horns, Amaltheia filled it with flowers and fruits and presented it to Zeus, who placed it together with the goat amongst the stars.

In some cases the singular is formed from the plural by the addition of -yn or -en; thus ser, " stars," seren, " star."

The Zunis of New Mexico, U.S.A., supposed " the sun, moon and stars, the sky, earth and sea, in all their phenomena and elements, and all inanimate objects as well as plants, animals and men, to belong to one great system of all-conscious and interrelated life, in which the degrees of relationship seem to be determined largely, if not wholly, by the degrees of resemblance."

Associated with the Sky are tablets to the sun and moon, the seven stars of the Great Bear, the five planets, the twenty-eight constellations, and all the stars of heaven; tablets to clouds, rain, wind and thunder being placed next to that of the moon.

So in the Vedic hymns the departed " Fathers " inhabit the three zones of earth, air and sky; they are invoked with the streams and mountains of this lower earth, as well as with the dawns and' the sky itself; even cosmic functions are ascribed to them; and they adorn the heaven with stars.

The observatory grounds were enlarged; two powerful instruments of the novel kind known as coude equatorials were installed; a spectroscopic department was established, and the gigantic task of re-observing all Lalande's stars was completed.

The advances in stellar photography made by Paul and Prosper Henry and others suggested to him the magnificent idea of obtaining, through the collaboration of astronomers in all parts of the world, an autographic picture of the entire sphere containing more than fifty million stars, which should faithfully record in future ages the state of the sky at the end of the i 9th century.

The treatise De cursibus ecclesiasticis, discovered in 1853, is a liturgical manual for determining the hour of divers nocturnal offices by the position of the stars.

The eyebrows are widened and painted till they appear to meet, while sham moles or stars are painted on the chin and cheek; even spangles are stuck at times on the chin and forehead.

She is now depicted as a beautiful and strong woman, with prominent breasts, a golden crown of stars and golden raiment.

Again he fully accepts the influence of the stars on the production of the metals, whereas the Latin Geber disputes it, and in general the chemical knowledge of the two is on a different plane.

He is the reputed inventor besides of two instruments to enable sailors "to find out the latitude without seeing of sun, moon or stars," an account of which is given in Thomas Blondeville's Theoriques of the Planets (London, 1602).

He was also the first advocate of Copernican views in England, and he concluded that the fixed stars are not all at the same distance from the earth.

The stars are held, not only to prognosticate the future but also to influence it; the child born when Mars is in the ascendant will be war-like; Venus has to do with love; the sign of the Lion presides over places where wild beasts are found.

Twenty-three stars are catalogued by Ptolemy and Tycho Brahe; Hevelius increased this number to forty-seven, while Flamsteed gave sixty-six.

The most brilliant stars are a Andromedae or "Andromeda's head," and f3 Andromedae in the girdle (Arabic mirach or mizar), both of the second magnitude; y Andromedae in the foot (alamak or alhames), of the third magnitude.

The hair having by some unknown means disappeared, Conon of Samos, the mathematician and astronomer, explained the phenomenon in courtly phrase, by saying that it had been carried to the heavens and placed among the stars.

For the purpose of improving knowledge of star-places he reduced James Bradley's Greenwich observations, and derived from them an invaluable catalogue of 3222 stars, published in the volume rightly named Fundamenta Astronomiae (1818).

Richter appears to have been the first to propound the idea that life came to this planet as cosmic dust or in meteorites thrown off from stars and planets.

In biblical use the word is applied to the company of angels in heaven; or to the sun, moon and stars, the "hosts of heaven," and also to translate "Jehovah Sabaoth," the Lord God of hosts, the lord of the armies of Israel or of the hosts of heaven.

Her connexion with the sea is explained by the influence of the moon on the tides, and the idea that the moon, like the sun and the stars, came up from the ocean.

During this time he could hear "the trailing garments of the night sweep through her marble halls," and see "the stars come out to listen to the music of the seas."

Too well-informed, too appreciative and too modest to deem himself the peer of the "grand old masters," or one of "those far stars that come in sight once in a century," he made it his aim to write something that should "make a purer faith and manhood shine in the untutored heart," and to do this in the way that should best reach that heart.

His extant works consist of two treatises; the one, Hcpi ravovj.thv s v4aipas, contains some simple propositions on the motion of the sphere, the other, IIEpi EirtroXWV Kai Sbo €wv, in two books, discusses the rising and setting of the fixed stars.

To prove this, it will be sufficient to mention that an exceedingly small deficiency in the transparency of the free aether would be sufficient to prevent the light of the fixed stars from reaching the earth, since their distances are so immense.

The first really adequate determinations of solar parallax were those of Sir David Gill, measured by inference from the apparent diurnal shift of Mars among the stars as the earth turned diurnally upon its axis; the observations were made at the island of Ascension in 1878.

These planets are more remote than Mars, but that loss is more than outweighed by the fact that they are indistinguishable in appearance from stars.

On some plates the stars were allowed to trail and the planet was followed, in others the reverse procedure was taken; in either case the planet's position is measured by referring it to " comparison stars " of approximately its own magnitude situated within 25' to 30' of the centre of the plate, while these stars are themselves fixed by measurement from brighter " reference stars," the positions of which are found by meridian observations if absolute places are desired.

If we regard the sun as one of the stars, the first four questions we should seek to answer are its distance from its neighbours, proper motion, magnitude and spectral type.

It is fairly certain that not more than six stars lie within twice this distance.

No certain guide has been found to tell which stars are nearest to us; both brightness and large proper motion, though of course increased by proximity, are apparently without systematic average relation to parallax.

It is virtually identical with a group known as the " yellow stars," of which the most prominent examples are Capella, Pollux and Arcturus; this is not the most numerous group, however; more than one half of all the stars whose spectra are known belong to a simpler type in which the metallic lines are faint or absent, excepting hydrogen and sometimes helium, which declare themselves with increased prominence.

These are the white stars, and the most prominent examples are Sirius, Vega and Procyon.

It is commonly though not universally held that the difference between the white and yellow stars arises from their stages of development merely, and that the former represent the earlier stage.

In 1862 he published a memoir, Intorno alle strie degli spettri stellari, which indicated the feasibility of a physical classification of the stars; and on the 5th of August 1864 discovered the gaseous composition of comets by submitting to prismatic analysis the light of one then visible.

He also invented a reflecting sextant for observing the distance between the moon and the fixed stars, - the same in every essential as the instrument which is still in everyday use at sea under the name of Hadley's quadrant.

The prince had offered, on Newton's recommendation, to be at the expense of printing Flamsteed's observations, and especially his catalogue of the stars.

Baptism then in the name or through the name or into the name of Christ placed the believer under the influence and tutelage of Christ's personality, as before he was in popular estimation under the influence of stars and horoscope.

They are also revealed by the spectroscope in stars, comets and the sun.

No food or drink of any kind is permitted to be taken from daybreak until the appearance of the stars at nightfall.

Zeus, to conceal the amour, changed Callisto into a she-bear; Hera, however, discovered it, and persuaded Artemis to slay Callisto, who was placed amongst the stars as iiptcros (" the bear").

Among these subjects were the transit of Mercury, the Aurora Borealis, the figure of the earth, the observation of the fixed stars, the inequalities in terrestrial gravitation, the application of mathematics to the theory of the telescope, the limits of certainty in astronomical observations, the solid of greatest attraction, the cycloid, the logistic curve, the theory of comets, the tides, the law of continuity, the double refraction micrometer, various problems of spherical trigonometry, &c. In 1742 he was consulted, with other men of science, by the pope, Benedict XIV., as to the best means of securing the stability of the dome of St Peter's, Rome, in which a crack had been discovered.

He further brought into prominence the effects of refraction in altering the apparent places of the heavenly bodies, and substituted Venus for the moon as a connecting-link between observations of the sun and stars.

Among the stars our sun is to be included, as it has no properties which distinguish it from the great mass of stars except our proximity to it.

The stars are supposed to be generally spherical, like the sun, in form, and to have fairly well-defined boundaries; while the nebulae are generally irregular in outline and have no well-defined limits.

As to extent, it may be said, in a general way, that while no definite limits can be set to the possible extent of the universe, or the distance of its farthest bodies, it seems probable, for reasons which will be given under Star, that the system to which the stars that we see belong, is of finite extent.

Those known to be revolving round certain of the stars are far larger in proportion to their central bodies than our planets are in respect to the sun; for were it otherwise we should never be able to detect their existence.

They then appear to us as " shooting stars " (see Meteor).

A general idea of the relation of the solar system to the universe may be gained by reflecting that the average distance between any two neighbouring stars is several thousand times the extent of the solar system.

The number of stars is so vast that statistical methods can be applied to many of the characters which they exhibit - their spectra, their apparent and absolute luminosity, and their arrangement in space.

The development of this branch has infused life and interest into what might a few years ago have been regarded as the most lifeless mass of figures possible, expressing merely the positions and motions of innumerable individual stars, as determined by generations of astronomical observers.

To the statistician of the stars, catalogues of spectra, magnitude, position and proper motions are of the same importance that census tables are to the student of humanity.

The measurement of the speed with which the individual stars are moving towards or from our system is a work of such magnitude that what has yet been done is scarcely more than a beginning.

In the case of the greater number of the fixed stars this is so slow that centuries may have to elapse before motion can be deduced.

In consequence of this motion the sun appears to us to describe annually a great circle, called the ecliptic, round the celestial sphere, among the stars, with a nearly uniform motion, of somewhat less than 1 0 in a day.

Were the stars visible in the daytime in the immediate neighbourhood of the sun, this motion could be traced from day to day.