The music of the spheres

A Nature Lover's Astronomy
BY
FLORENCE ARMSTRONG GRONDAL
NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1926
All rights reserved
IN GRATEFUL APPRECIATION OF HIS KINDLY AND HELPFUL INTEREST THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO SAMUEL L. BOOTHROYD PROFESSOR IN CHARGE OF THE FUERTES OBSERVATORY CORNELL UNIVERSITY ITHACA, N. Y.

A TREASURE-TROVE OF 50,000 STARS.
Photograph of the star cluster in Hercules by Mount Wilson Observatory through the 60-inch reflector.
HOW thrilling to read of great hunts for treasure! Yet the pirates who dug their spades into the earthy loam never cached such jewels as are hidden along the dark slopes of the sky. Armed with a chart of the heavens, the fledgling astronomer prods about in the depths of the gloom, shovels the dark with the aid of his telescope, and discovers,—even more surely than the pirate his chest,—some wonderful treasure. Sometimes the find is a star-like diamond, a twinkling emerald, a fire-filled ruby or a cluster of star gems of colorful hues, but it may be, too, a profusion of riches, heaped in a magnificence that leaves one breathless.
One must know, however, before adventuring along the skyways, just where to look for these starry jewels. The air must also be clear and the eye color-true. In the tropics where the atmosphere is more transparent, the colors seem deeper and more beautiful. This is also true on deserts, on the ocean or on mountain tops.
To those who do not know that stars, even as jewels, have individuality, the various colorings will come as a special surprise. Vega , for instance, is large and most wonderfully blue , rising in the far northeast during the first of May; Arcturus , appearing at the same time near the zenith, is tinted like a King Midas' rose . On the first of June, Antares glows like a scarlet-shaded lamp hung low in the southeast, while in the northeast, creamy-hued Capella scintillates like the electrified cross-section of a rainbow. In the case of a double star where the colors are sharply contrasted—gold and blue or scarlet and green—the effect is startling and very beautiful. Weird looking purple stars and wan lavender ones may also be found, but all these lovely tints and shades are hidden among the hosts of more common yellow and white stars, and if one does not know just where to find them it is like hunting for treasure without a chart.