Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/502

376 of sixteen miles a second. Its spectrum is Sirian, and as a standard second magnitude star it furnishes a means of comparison of stellar magnitudes. It has a 9.5 magnitude companion, sometimes regarded as a test star for small telescopes. This faint star has two almost dark companions revolving around it, a fact discovered by means of the spectroscope.

Polaris is presumably about the size of the sun, and at the distance of the nearest fixed star our sun would shine as a star no brighter than Polaris. It is of interest to note in passing that the North Star is elevated as many degrees above the horizon as the observer is north of the Equator, so that if a person were to stand at the North Pole, Polaris would be directly overhead.

β Ursæ Minoris was known to the Arabs as "Kochab." They also called it "the Bright One," and "the Lights of the Two Calves." The Chinese knew it as "the Emperor." Its spectrum is solar and it is receding from us at the rate of about eight miles a second.

β and γ, were known as "the Guardians or Wardens of the Pole."

Shakespeare in Othello thus refers to them:

These stars were also called "the Dancers," and "Vigiles."

Allen tells us that these guardian stars were used as a timepiece by the common people, in the same way that Charles's Wain was used for a like purpose, as has been referred to.

γ Ursæ Minoris is a wide double, and these stars were known to the Arabs as one star, called "the dim one of the two calves."

The stars in the vicinity of the North Pole represented to the Arabs a shepherd, who, with his dog, is supposed to