| Show THE KING OF SUNS S wonderful facts regarding sirius tho the dog star A calfine ant anione sunn sting Com compared parea aith which our own siaki italo the brightest atar in the lio Avena in the entire firmament embracing both hemispheres there aro are about abou hix thousand stars visible to the D naked alred yes eye 3 aul among this se number on one in particular owing to its remarkable brilliancy and superior in W must have attracted the attention of all persons who enjoy an occasional survey of the heavens in tho the winter season from time immemorial imm emorid this itar has been observed with tho the greatest solicitude by pouts poets divines and philosophers and is known to astronomers by the name of sirius the damous do dog n star of the ancients 1 I 1 here is no other star in the heavens that has been more ally observed and around which thero there cluster so many ancient associations and superstitions or has received more attention from astronomers in all apes ages of th the e world IN hoover hoever has looked upon this beautiful star locked in the brightest brighte zt legion of the heavens and seen it glowing arid and scintillating 1 on a clear arid and frosty night in ln winter duter have beheld with awe and admiration its indescribable splendor and one need not be an astronomer to admire its radiant glory or to conclude that this charming ort possesses i character aises distinguishing it from any other oilier star in the firina firmament ment even those of the first magnitude n with which it is classed by astronomers it I 1 is true that one star diff ereth from another star in glory and among the ali a stars revealed by tho the great telescopes of the present day the most surpassing glory unquestionably surrounds hur tur rounds the peerless dog star which lias has been a prominent celestial ob object j act from the earliest ages m and liar has played a somewhat important part in the history of mankind sirius belongs to the little constellation canis major a group of thirty one stars situated just south and east cast of orion and almost unive universally rally known irom rom the unrivaled brilliancy of its leading orb but which otherwise pos benses no noteworthy attraction aben observed through a largo large tee scope sirius presents a charming appearance pe arance and and shines with a brill brilliancy faricy that is startling to the beholder the light of this star is so strong 0 that when the hie glorious orb is entering enteria 0 the field of a powerful telescope its approach is announced by a bright dawn like that which precedes tho the rising sun and when the star itself enters the field bield ot oi vision it shines with a dazzling splendor and its brilliancy is so great as to require a colored glass to protect the eye sirius is not only the brightest star in the heavens but is more than three times brighter than an ordinary firby magnitude star and is believed to be times as bright as a star star of the sixth magui magnitude tudo the faintest visible to the naked eyo eye the author of it a recent work on astronomy says everybody has heard of sirius or the dog attar and overy everybody body must have leen it laah flash j lag ing mufid r CI so splendidly mildly in 4 1 1 r 1 1 il tho the winter li heavens cavens that thai to lu call lt it a first magnitude star does docs it injustice since no othe star of that magnitude is at all comparable NN ith it sirius sinus in fact stands in a a class by itself as tho the brightest star in the sky its light is white with a shado shade of green which requires close watching to bo be detected when it is near the horizon or when the atmosphere is very uli unsteady toady sirius binus flashes prismatic colors like a great diamond and your eye eyes will i ill be fairly dazzled when you turn your glass upon this splendid star it is believed that remark remarkable ablo changes have taken place in the color of sirius sinus since it v was as first observed by astronomers whether or not th s is the case cae it is now a well established fact that the stars chango change their color and many instances of the kind have been noticed in various parts of the heavens sirius was wai deschi described bed by the ancients as a fiery red star M many 1 years ago it was baid to be pure white but it is now nov be becoming coining of a decided green color as a careful observer will readily perceive when this thia star is visible on a clear winter evenin evening r yet many eminent astronomers do dc not be lieva that bilius lias has changed in color and a recent writer on the r subject says the question has been much discussed as to whether lier sirius sinus was formerly a rec red I 1 star it is described as red md by several beveral ancient authors bur buo it seems to bo be pretty well I 1 that those these descriptions script ions are arc P v ost of them due to a blunder made ly cicero in his translation of the astronomical poem of aratus it I 1 is s not impo impossible sible thour though ll it is highly improbable that birl benub has bas changed color owing to the remarkable size and brilliancy of 1 1 araus iri uia it was once naturally regarded 0 rs tho the nearest of the stars star but its distance is in reality so preat great that it has never been satish satisfactorily acao determined the most reliable authorities ho however wever assi assin assign 0 n to sirius sinus a distance of miles which is rive five times tho the dist distance a n CO of alpho the nearest star known to astronomers and a million times the suns distance from our lal eaith th it has been estimated anat the brilliancy of sirius is times gr greater cater than that of the sun and if we assume that the intrinsic brightness of its surface is the same as tho the suns the surface of this star must bo be times larger than that of the sun from which it follows that the diameter of 0 sirius sinus is about eighteen times that of the sun and its volume about 2 OJ times greater crl prof garrett garratt 1 P serviss referring to sirius in a recent magazine article says according to recent estimates sirius while shining with perhaps seventy times the light of our aur sun bun is only between two and three times as massive so that tho the intensity of its radiation is enormously enormously y greater than the sun suns planets situated as close to sirius as the earth and tho the other inner hiner planets of our system are to the sun would N bo be unable to endure so far as their life bearing functions are concerned the gush of heat and blaze of light 0 poured upon thern them unless indeed tho the organization n of living beings there were entirely dif different from that prevailing hero here we should then expect such stars as sirius if they aro are the centers of the planetary syb systems terns atall at all to bo be surrounded rounded bur fur by globes revolving at comparatively great distances and in long periods of time tho the mind utterly fails to comprehend the immeasurable distance which separates our earth from this immense orb liht light 0 which travels with the almost inconceivable velocity of miles per second requires twenty two tivo years to traverse tho the distance between sirius and our earth we may justly consider this brilliant sun as the center of a sy hy acin of revolving worlds and imagine them as being inhabited by creatures far more advanced in intellectual development than ourselves but we are at a loss to conceive of the vast scale on which the system of such an immense sun must necessarily be constructed and when in addition to the startling facts already mentioned we consider the recent discovery that sirius with its entire family of planets planeta and comets is rushing gli apace with enormous velocity the mind is 19 bewildered in contemplating 0 the wonders of this stupendous orb rb by moans means of tho the spectroscope arof prof huggins huggine the eminent english astronomer h has as faund talat sirius is receding 0 from our earth at the rate of twenty bix miles miler pet per cie second cond aai yet even with this almost velocity the passage of it a thousand will make no perceptible cep tible diVe difference rence in the appearance of this brilliant star so immense is the distance which separates it aiom our earth ono one of vie most interesting results of the observations observation directed to this wonderful star was the discovery that it is attended by a companion com pinion or satellite the existence of which hall had ion long been suspected suspect od by astronomers and winch which was wab finally detected by mere accident tho the pre presence senco of this object had been revealed by the effect of its attraction upon sirius sinus the motion of which varied in suel such a way vay as to indicate a pov craul disturbing influence in its vicinity the famous german astronomer bessol nearly fifty years ago expressed his belief that tho periodical variations in the motion of sirius sinus were ivero produced by the attraction attra clion of an invisible comp companion arilon revolving m around the immense orb sacral astronomers had calculated the orbet of the attracting body and its direction aiom bilius at various times and though it was diligently sear sea clied relied for it continued to elude detection evon even by means of the most powerful ill telescopes lutin february 1803 1863 1 the eighteen and one half inch telescope which was wai being constructed ted for the chicago ol 01 observatory atory by the lato late alvan chelc the fan famous nolis optician was vas pointed to birlus binus as a tott of its power when hen the disturbing r COMP companion aDiOn came suddenly denly into view cwi V at a distance of about wn ten EC mccond cond rom irom the large star and exactly in ill the direction which had been predicted lor that time we find then that sirius is a daubl star the two components be ing phy physically connected and f forming lor ming what is ii known as a 11 binary system the sin smaller aller star revolving around the lar larger 9 er or both around armind their common center ot gravity owing to certain irrea irregularities lar ti s in the motion of the sma smaller aher star which cannot be explained pla ined borne astronomers are of the opinion iolI that sirius lias has another disturbing companion the existence of which is indicated by its attraction only and which may eventually be bc discovered I 1 in conclusion wo we reproduce the interesting terest te resting mg rema remarks of pi of daniel kirkwood regarding n 11 sirius aria and its companion published in Apple tons annual cyclopedia for the year 1870 1876 atrom the discussion of the observations of the companion of sirius dr auwers has found the period of revolution to be 49 years days the semi axis of tho the orbit thirty seven t times the distance distan ee of the earth from the sun and the eccentricity somewhat greater than that of fayes comet the mass of the companion is is half that of the principal star or more exactly the mass of bilius is 1370 and that of the telescopic star 37 1 the mass of the sun being unity As the light of sirius according to sir john is 0 times that of an avera average c star of the sixth mn magnitude 0 and as the satel satellite hta discovered by dark clark is of the ninth or tenth magnitude the light of th the latt latter r m must IS i t be much less than 1000 1 part of that received from the principal star tho the facts seem to indicate a remarkable difference between the physical constitution of sirius and its sate I 1 lite arthur K M bartlett in chicago o inter ocean |
