Why, that looks as though we were getting up to the top of the hill, and should have to go down on the other side.
What shape, then, do you suppose the world ought to be, to account for these curious apparent motions of the stars?
I fancy it ought to be round, and that is what I have always been told it is, father.
I want to ask you whether you have noticed anything peculiar about the apparent daily motion of the stars. Do they all rise in the east and pass over to the west?
This is just the subject I wanted to speak about. I thought at first that they did so, and ought to do so. But I have since found out that this is not the case. They do not all describe the same sized circle.
What have you observed?
Some make a regular sweep across—others only rise to pop down again. Yet there is a more wonderful thing. The stars near the North Polar star perform their circle without going under at all. Then the greatest puzzle is, that the Polar star always keeps its place without any turning.
You do not think that the stars describe circles each day of different sizes according to their distances from the Polar star?
No. I feel sure that it is all a cheat of the eye, though I don’t see where the cheat is.
I thought you were quite settled in your mind that the apparent motion of the stars was owing to the revolution of the earth.