Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/127

 to shake out pepper until there is a little heap in the center and the other grains of pepper are scattered loosely about. Imagine that every one of those grains of pepper was to be transformed into a tiny electric light, and then you would have some idea of what a cluster of stars would look like when viewed through a telescope of sufficient power."

It was at one time thought that the cluster of Hercules might be a comparatively close cluster of small-sized suns, but Professor Shapley has lately discovered that the cluster is a very distant one; indeed it lies at such an exceedingly remote position in the realms of space that its parallax is slightly inferior to a 10,000th second of arc which corresponds to a little more than 36,000 light years. Thus it takes 36,000 light years for its light to reach us, for this light has to cross the unthinkable space of 220,000 billion miles!



Of the string of constellations twinkling high overhead during the spring and summer months, we have already mentioned Leo, the Lion; Berenice's Hair; Boötes with his golden Arcturus; the Northern Crown and the giant Hercules.

Next to Hercules, on the east, lies the constellation of Lyra, represented in legend as the sweet toned harp which belonged to Orpheus, son of the Muse Calliope. Orpheus inherited the love of music from his mother, and after the Sun-god had presented him with this wonderful harp, he played so delightfully that even trees, rocks and hills gathered around him to listen.

Treasuring the memory of such remarkable talents, the Greeks placed the instrument in the heavens at the edge of the Milky