Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/450

330 distance around the star, like a miniature presentment of the sun as it rises on a hazy morning."

Antares belongs to Secchi's third spectroscopic type of stars, the suns that are slowly growing cold as their fires burn low. Like huge embers they still glow with latent heat, like sullen demons doomed to death these flame-scourged suns await the frigid touch that time bestows on life, be it on this mundane sphere or in the uttermost parts of the firmament.

Antares has a tiny emerald green companion which can be seen in a five-inch telescope. Serviss, in his Pleasures of the Telescope, thus refers to it: "Antares carries concealed in its rays a green jewel which to the eye of the enthusiast in telescopic recreation appears more beautiful and inviting each time he penetrates to its hiding-place. ... When the air is steady and the companion can be well viewed, there is no finer sight among the double stars. The contrast in colours is beautifully distinct — fire-red and bright green. The little green star has been seen emerging from behind the moon ahead of its ruddy companion."

Two or three degrees north of Antares is the location of the discovery of Coddington's Comet C of 1898, the third comet to be discovered photographically.

Antares rises at sunset on the 1st day of June, and culminates at 9 on July 11th.

The triple star β Scorpii is known as "Graffias," of unknown derivation. Allen points out that the Greek word signifies crab, and that the words for crab and

scorpion were almost interchangeable in the early days. This may possibly explain the origin of the title of this star. Timochares, it is said, observed an occultation of β by the moon in the year 295

The three stars in a line, β, δ, and π Scorpii, seem to have attracted attention in all ages, much as the three stars in Orion's Belt are always associated together. The Hindus figured these stars as a Row or Ridge, and on the Euphrates