Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/491

Rh the figure of an exaggerated steamer chair 50,000 years hence, as they did a magnificent cross 50,000 years ago.

Since these stars are apparently getting farther apart, they must be approaching us, a fact which the spectroscope reveals. Their rate of speed varies from seven to ten miles a second.

These stars are all about the same distance from us, between ninety and one hundred light years, although one authority places the distance as high as 192 light years. According to Ludendorff all of the seven stars exceed our sun in brilliancy from thirty to one hundred and twenty times.

θ Ursæ Majoris is a double star, with six other stars near by in the throat, breast, and fore legs of the Bear. It describes a semicircle of stars which the Arabs called "the Throne of the Mourners." This space was also known as "the Pond," already referred to, into which the gazelles sprang when pursued by the Lion.

ι, was called "Talitha," and in China ι and θ were known as "the High Dignitary." Holden says that the companion of ι is supposed to be a planet.

λ, and μ were known respectively as Tania Borealis and Tania Australis. They mark the Bear's left hind foot, and were the Arabs' "Second Spring," i.e., of the gazelle. In China they were "the Middle Dignitary."

ν and ξ mark the right hind foot of the Bear. They were the Chinese "Lower Dignitary." The latter star was the first binary of which the orbit was computed, says Allen. Savary in 1828 announced its period as sixty-one years, and this star has already made more than a complete revolution since its discovery.

ο, the star that marks the nose of the Bear, was called "Muscida," a word Allen claims was coined in the Middle Ages for the muzzle of an animal.

A few degrees from β is situated the so-called "Owl Nebula." In Lord Rosse's sketch of it there is a striking resemblance to a skull, there being two symmetrically