Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/169

 cates that its diameter is four hundred million miles! The volume of this star is therefore about twenty-five million times as great as the volume of our sun. As far as we know, this is the largest star. This is surely most interesting. We might have imagined these gloriously tinted stars as small-sized novelties scattered about the heavens for our special edification—certainly we did not expect to find that some of them were so tremendously large that they would pass by our little golden orb as a speck of incandescent sand.

Not only is Antares of interest because of its great size and charming color but it also possesses a companion star of the vividest shade of green. This companion was first noted during an occultation in 1819, quite amazing its observer by sliding out from behind the moon just before the large red star emerged and dimmed its light by its powerful ruddy rays. The green-hued star is very tiny in comparison to Antares and may only be seen with the aid of a 5- or 6-inch telescope. Under good atmospheric conditions it is a very beautiful object.

The flame-red sun Antares beside its woodsy-green companion is one of the most impressive color combinations among the stars. Imagine living on a planet whose orbits encompassed such ostentatious stars! A green sunrise with a livid sky and a red sunset with a scarlet one—then a red sunrise and a green sunset—if colors affect one the way it is sometimes said that they do, the inhabitants of such a planet might live through "red hours" and "green hours" like "Dr. Jekylls" and "Mr. Hydes."

What a surprise to the eye and a delectable bit for the imagination are the blue, gold, green, rose, lilac, purple and other fires in the sun-lit sky. Here is something "as rare as a day in June." It would seem as if the whole solar system were enchanted if we might visit the planets of a white and sapphire blue sun, for instance, or those of one of topaz-yellow and heliotrope hue. On the other hand it might seem beyond the bounds of reason to an