Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/129

Rh Russell claims that Arcturus exceeds our sun in brilliance one hundred and fifty times, while some make Arcturus equal in illuminating power to six thousand such suns as ours.

According to Mrs. Martin it takes the light of Arcturus more than one hundred years to reach us. Serviss puts this estimate at forty or fifty years, and states that Arcturus is relatively an aged sun surrounded with a blanket of absorbing metallic vapours, which cut off a large part of his radiant energy, and gives to him a ruddy, fiery hue, especially when he is seen just rising from the horizon. At this time the scintillating colours of Arcturus as viewed in a telescope are beautiful to behold.

It has been proved that we do not receive from Arcturus more heat than we should from a candle at a distance of five or six miles.

Many who were fortunate enough to witness Donati's great comet of 1858 will recall that at one time that comet's head almost occulted Arcturus, and yet its splendour was undiminished.

Prof. Nichols's account of this wonderful sight is worth quoting in this connection

"It was a spectacle the like of which no one might see again though he should spend on earth fifty lives. At the beginning the comet was like a plume of fire, shaped like a bird of paradise, but it soon brightened into a stupendous scimitar, brandished in the sunset, and when it swept over Arcturus the whole astronomical world was watching to see what would happen to the star."

Arcturus comes to the meridian on June 8th at 9

Whitman wrote the following beautiful poem to Arcturus: