A compendium of astronomy: being a concise description of the most interesting phenomena of the heavens (1849)

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34 zon, than in the tropical zone, where the sun sinks almost perpendicularly downwards, and the twilight is very short. The most numerous bodies which we see in the heavens are called Fixed Stars. They are at an immense and almost inconceivable distance from us ; and very little is known with certainty respecting them. They are generally supposed to he Suns like our own, each the centre of another system. Their number is almost incalculable. Those which can be seen on a clear night with the naked eye amount to about 3500. With a powerful telescope, this number is increased to an inconceivable extent. These stars are distributed into Constellations, which are named from some fancied resemblance to various objects. Of these, two of the most brilliant are Orion (in whose belt is found a re- markable and beautiful nebula), DIAGRAM XXVII. and Ursa Major, or Great Bear, DIAGRAM XXVIII. Recent observations have discovered many curious facts relating to the fixed stars which are worth notice. Many of the stars, when examined with powerful telescopes, are found to consist of two, and in some cases three, placed very near together. More than 3000 of these double stars have been discovered, some of which are very conspicuous. Many of these are found to re- volve round each other; and their periods have been as- certained with considerable accuracy. These are called binary stars. The two stars forming r\ Coronce revolve round each other in 43^ years; whilst those in y Virginis (one of the principal binary stars) have a period of 629 years. It is not impossible that these stars may be suns revolving around each other, each having its own train of planets, satellites, and comets.