These are only suggestions of what may be anticipated in our treasure hunt along the slopes of the sky, but every star that has once been found and called by name will stand forth from the multitude with a magnetic radiance that forever after thrills the discoverer with the pride of achievement.

CHAPTER II
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STARS

"He who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters—the planets, the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man."

—Emerson.

THE dome of the heavens with its constellations of stars turns westward at the rate of about 15 degrees an hour.

Thus the stars, in unchanging order, rise majestically above the horizon in the east, wend their way across the great expanse of sky above our heads, and disappear below the horizon in the west. It is only necessary to note the position of a particularly bright star or a conspicuous constellation lying near the horizon and then return after several hours have elapsed and again note its position in the sky to prove this general movement toward the west. This is an interesting experiment for it is often a surprise to people to hear that the stars of the heaven are constantly shifting their position throughout the hours.

Each star has an individual pathway which describes an arc across the heavens, the exception to this being the circum polar stars which describe complete circles around a point north of the zenith.

The center indicated by the curved pathways of the stars is called the Pole of the Heavens, and in the northern hemisphere this important location is marked by the North Star. The North Star, also called Polaris or the Pole Star, lies almost directly above the north pole of the earth, and is located in the sky by the "pointers" on the bowl of the Big Dipper.

Since we cannot realize the whirling of the earth on its axis which causes the heavenly bodies to appear to pass in the opposite direction, it is the same to us as if the axis of the earth continued upward to Polaris, thus causing this star to seem to stand still, while all the other stars in the course of twenty-four hours seem to whirl in fixed orbits around it.

"The earth in circling round the moving sun,
Seems to give motion to the nearer stars,
Bending the tracks they trace across the sky."