CELESTIAL PHENOMENA OF THE MONTHS. CHAPTER I. JANUARY. "Unnumbered stars ride, in their perfect beauty, THE clear, cold nights of winter are indescribably beautiful, when not a cloud flits across the heavens, and high winds have chased before them all murky vapours that arise from off the earth. "One starry glitter girds the glowing pole," and far and wide, from the zenith to the verge of the horizon, crowd innumerable stars of varying magnitude and lustre-some extremely brilliant, others dimly twinkling; a few verging on the horizon, but the greater number looking down, from their high stations above us, on the calm serenity of a sleeping world. "We shall have a frost," some people say; see how bright the stars are!" and thus saying, they pass on. Others, pausing, gaze and admire the grandeur of the heavens; they desire to become acquainted with the names and relative positions of each bright star; and to such we say, "Look northwards, towards the zenith, high up in the air; there shines the Great Bear, commonly called Charles's Wain, a beacon constellation, which serves to point out the position of many others." This constellation is readily distinguished; it forms one of the most remarkable groups in the heavens, consisting of seven prominent stars of the second magnitude, four of which are so arranged as to represent an irregular square, and the other three are prolonged into a very obtuse triangle. But in order to facilitate an accurate knowledge of such constellations as are visible during the present month, of such also as appear successively, you must provide yourself with a good celestial chart, or hemisphere, of such a size that stars of the first and second magnitude are distinctly laid down. Compare the figure of the seven stars, as exhibited in the chart, and which pertain to the Great Bear, with those in the heavens, and your eye will soon become accustomed to them. This done, examine the configuration of the neighbouring ones, which equally belong to the well-known group, and you will trace them with equal facility. We use the term "well-known," because few constellations have excited such general interest. When Milton, in poetic mood, personified Melancholy as a matron sage and holy, he thus spoke of the Great Bear: "Oh, let my lamps at midnight hour Our country people, who never heard of Plato, nor much concerning the shaggy occupant of Scandinavian forests, unless when exhibited as a dancer at wakes or fairs, give to the group of which we speak the appellation of Charles's Wain, or wagon; four of the stars reminding them of the four wheels of a wagon, and the three others of the horses. No other stars resemble them in their position, and by their aid many a shepherd has found his way across wild moors in winter, when snow lay deep upon the ground. Now look on the two stars which compose the hinder wheels of the wagon, and carry your eye in a straight line to a bright star above, of the second magnitude, and beaming alone in a pretty large space. This is the Polestar; it is always stationary, and by looking full at it you may readily find the north. Although the observation is a trite one, it may not be useless to remark, that the east will be naturally on the right hand, the west on the left. "The Pole-star hath its own deep solemn beauty, Pre-eminent the circling stars among; And still those stars, as if with conscious duty, Their service render-still successive throng, As days and years glide on; nor weary they To tread the mighty path that circling leads, Around that Star, to which they homage pay, Rejoicing ever; they the Panean reeds And dances heed not, though the glittering trains No other constellations are associated with such pleasant remembrances as the Great and Lesser Bears. They are familiar to husbandmen; and many a wayfaring man, passing over lonely wilds, or voyager far off at sea, has been saved from inevitable destruction by observing them. Now, if a straight line is drawn from the head of the Great Bear, crossing the meridian, and inclining a little to the north-east, it will touch the brilliant constellation of Cassiopeia, a remarkable group, containing, among lesser ones, five stars, arranged nearly as follows: of the land. Surely that fair lady, riding high in the air, seems as a centre of attraction to many others. Matron-like, she hath her family clustering round her, or near at hand. Methinks she might typify the virtuous woman whom King Solomon so much commends for her diligence and wisdom; whose husband trusted in her, knowing that by her skill his household would be clothed in scarlet, and himself pre-eminently attired when sitting, in the gates of his native city, among the elders Alas for thee, starred Ethiop's queen!" although the daughter of "bright-haired Vesta," no such meed of praise pertaineth to thy name. Thy husband and thy daughter could not "rise up and call thee blessed;" but those who look upon thee in thy nightly progress, whether above myrtle groves or over snow-clad hills, may derive from thee a lesson of eternal import. Near Cassiopea is stationed Perseus, with Medusa's Head; Andromeda, the daughter of Cassiopea, gleams on the horizon at ten at night; Cepheus, her father, has risen considerably higher; the Swan, with a bright star in the foot of Pegasus, may be seen when the earth is free from vapours; westward appear the Pleiades, Fly and Triangle, verging on the zodiac. This glorious belt of constellations nightly reveals the signs of Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, with the head and shoulders of Virgo. The Lyre, Dragon, and Corona Sept are obvious in the vicinity of the Great Bear and Pole-star. Boötes, also, a northern constellation, is fully developed; and close at hand is Coma Berenices; next, and near to the meridian, Leo Minor may be dimly discerned; the Lyra appears on that line, somewhat higher up; and close to Perseus is the Cameleopard. Beneath the zodiac, extending from west to east, the Whale, Orion, Canis Minor and Major, Monoceros, and Hydra are already stationed; southward is the ship Argo; and on the eastern horizon the Centaur has just risen. Such is the brief mention of constellations that are now visible in the immensity of space. Concerning these, as months pass on, we purpose speaking much at large; noting, also, such celestial phenomena as pertain to this portion of our subject. Meanwhile it is most desirable that our readers should become acquainted with historic facts connected with astronomy. Earth has her records of old time, memorial trees and ruins, which men journey far to visit, reckless of fatigue or peril; and happy is the traveller who may unearth some fragment or old coin that has lain hid for ages! The heavens, likewise, exhibit records of what has been. Those who first sought to give names to the most obvious groups inscribed upon their titles either the history of such events as they desired to perpetuate, or the names of the terrestrial objects that surrounded them, or marked successive periods for works of husbandry, or memorialized illustrious characters to whom their country had given birth. Most authors fix the origin of astronomy either in Chaldea or in Egypt. Those regions were especially adapted for observing the movements of heavenly bodies, on account of their extended flatness, and the clearness of the atmosphere; and both equally laid claim to producing the first cultivators of this important science. The Chaldeans boasted of their temple, or tower, of Belus, from whose lofty summit they gazed upon the stars; and of Zoroaster, whom they placed before the Trojan war, and whom they extolled for his deep and acute researches into philosophy, and the study of astronomy. The Babylonians boasted in like manner concerning their colleges of priests, where the science was fully taught, and of the golden circle of Osymandyas, divided into three hundred and sixty-five parts, according to the days of the year. The beauty and glory of the stars, designed as setters forth of blessings in store for man, and as proofs, also, of unerring wisdom, became obscured as years passed on; and when star-worship was instituted, the Chaldean and Babylonian priests, whose nightly studies gave them a minute acquaintance with the movements and classifications of the celestial lights, obtained, by this means, a great ascendency over the minds of their votaries. They could foretell precisely the moment when each star or constellation would appear on the horizon; and, calling it by some appropriate name, they professed to render it subservient to their assumed power. By these and other perversions of the knowledge which they actually possessed, they acquired an amazing political influence; and the fame of Babylon and Egypt, of their diviners and astrologers, went forth into all nations. From Chaldea and Egypt the science of astronomy passed into Phoenicia. Her people applied the knowledge they obtained of the heavenly bodies to purposes of navigation, steering their course by the Pole-star; and becoming, in consequence, masters of the seas, they traded to regions comparatively remote; and hence we find, in their starry archives, references to events connected with their history and commerce. The Greeks most probably derived their astronomical science chiefly from the Egyptians and Phoenicians, in consequence of their scholars resorting to those countries in pursuit of learning. Newton conjectures that the division of the stars into constellations was made about the time of the Argonautic expedition, when, as poets tell, Jason and his fifty-four companions voyaged in the ship Argo, in order to recover a golden fleece: it is, however, more probable that such division belonged to a much earlier period, and originated before the flood. Josephus ascribes to Seth and his posterity a considerable knowledge of astronomy, and speaks of the two pillars, one of brick, the other of stone, called by his name, on which were inscribed the principles of the science. Be this as it may, it is clearly evident that the great length of antediluvian life would afford excellent opportunities for observing the luminaries of heaven, and we cannot but suppose that the science of astronomy was considerably advanced in their time. With regard to times comparatively modern, yet previous to the expedition of Jason, several constellations are mentioned by Hesiod-that celebrated votary of the Muses, contemporary with Homer, who first wrote a poem on agriculture, and whose instructions to cultivators of the field contain reflections worthy of Socrates and Plato. Homer also refers to different groups and stars, and clothed many a thought respecting them with his wonted sublimity. In after years, Aratus, a Greek poet of Cilicia, wrote— by the desire of Antigonus Gonatus, king of Macedonia, at whose court he passed much of his life-a poem on astronomy, which, embodying the information derived from past ages with such as pertained to his own time, comprised the relative position, the rising and setting, and the number and motion of such stars as were then divided into groups. The first showed how every constellation is stationed with reference to its neighbour; what position it held as regarded the supposed construction of the sphere; and in what companionship it rose or set. This calendar of stars, though necessarily incomplete, sufficed for the use of sailors and purposes of husbandry; while the elegant and highly finished verses in which it was composed caused the poem to be translated by Cicero and Cæsar Germanicus; paraphrased by Avienus, a poet in the reign of the Roman Emperor Theodosius; and illustrated by about fifty commentators. Aratus was cited by St. Paul when, in the midst of Mar's Hill, he adverted to the superstitions of the men whom he addressed, bidding them remember that the Deity dwelt not in temples made with hands; for in Him we live, and move, and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said." (Acts xvii. 28.) Hipparchus--himself a luminary of the first magnitude-mathematician and astronomer of Nicea, who flourished about fifty-two years after Aratus, added greatly to astronomic science. He divided the heavens into fortynine constellations, and gave names to all the stars. He first conjectured that the interval between the vernal and autumnal equinox is one hundred and eighty-six days-seven days longer than between the autumnal and the vernal-and that it was occasioned by the eccentricity of the earth's orbit. Having also one day viewed from different situations an isolated tree growing on a wide plain, and observed the seeming change in its appearance, he was led to consider that a similar variation might be perceptible among the constellations, according to the point of view from which they were con |