Pray, is our sun no more fixed than the rest of them?
He, too, is on the move.
But where are they all going to?
That has been a matter of dispute. Some thought the stars were dancing round Sirius. But Mädler, the German astronomer, would have us believe that they have a greater fancy for some spot near the Pleiades. Others think of Hercules. But all would take many millions of years.”
DISTANCES AND SIZES OF THE STARS.
James had a long talk with the captain one day about the telescope, and got a capital lesson about the magnifying power being according to the character and size of the glasses used. The sailors called the instrument the “Bring ’em near;” and it does make distant objects look as if near. It was explained to the boy that the stars were of different magnitudes or sizes, first, second, third, &c., according to their relative distances. The following conversation followed between the father and son:—
“Now, my boy, I must try and give you some idea of the penetrating power of light, that you may get an idea of the enormous distances of the stars. You are aware that the more distant they are the less their light. A star of the first or nearest magnitude will have one hundred times the light of one of the sixth magnitude. A telescope, therefore, gathering one hundred times the ordinary light, will make the sixth look as near as the first.
And will it be one hundred times further off?
No; light increases or diminishes according to the square of the distance.