The Star People

“Now Paul, suppose you walk around the table again, spinning on your own axis as you go, and we’ll try to find out what the Zodiac is. You notice that the pictures are all pinned on the walls at the same height from the floor, which is just the height of the electric lamp bulb, and just the height of Paul’s head too, no matter where he is in his walk around the lamp. The twelve constellations, or signs of the Zodiac are in the real sky also on the same level with the earth and the sun, no matter where the earth is in its journey round the sun. Astronomers say it this way: they say that the earth revolves around the sun ‘in the plane of the ecliptic.’ That simply means that if the sun was in the centre of an enormous horizontal pane of glass, the earth and all the signs of the Zodiac would also always be touching the pane of glass, which would then represent the ‘plane of the ecliptic.’ Put an l in ‘pane’ and you have ‘plane.’”

“Is each sign for a month?” asked Peter. “I see there are twelve of them.”

“That’s correct,” said Uncle Henry, “and you want to notice that as Paul walks round the lamp and looks across it at the signs on the wall beyond it, the lamp seems to Paul to move from one picture to the next.”

This picture is drawn as if the ceiling of the room was taken off and you could look down on Paul walking around the lamp.

When it is January first, Paul, representing the earth, is in the position marked A, nearest to the picture of Gemini behind him, while the lamp, representing the sun, appears to him to be entering the sign of the Zodiac called Sagittarius, directly opposite across the room. Later, on April first, after three months, Paul, or the earth, has traveled a quarter of the way around the sun, has passed the pictures of Cancer and Leo on the wall behind him, and stands nearest Virgo in the position marked B. The lamp has also seemed to move through a quarter circle, has passed through the signs of Capricornus and Aquarius, and appears to Paul to be just entering the sign of Pisces, or the Fishes. In the same way the earth moves through a sign of the Zodiac every month and the sun, while really motionless, appears to also travel through a sign every month. Of course we cannot see the sign or constellation, where the sun appears to be, at the same time we see the sun, for his brightness makes the stars invisible, but if we could see the constellations by day, the sun would appear to travel from one sign of the Zodiac to the next every month.

Here is a clock of the year which shows the earth at one end of the hand, the sun in the middle, and at the other end of the hand an arrow, which points to the sign of the Zodiac where the sun appears to be, and to the date when it seems to be there to an observer on the earth. Draw the hand with the earth-end in several different positions and you will see that the sun, if viewed from the earth, would appear to be in the sign of the Zodiac exactly opposite.

When the children all understood the way the Zodiac divides the yearly path of the earth into twelve equal parts, Betty said, “I want to know why the geography globe at school always looks just as if it was going to tip over.”

Uncle Henry laughed. “If you think the geography globe looks unsteady because its axis of iron rod is on a slant, what will you think about the earth when I tell you that it spins around in just the same slanting position, with only an imaginary line for axis?”

“Does it really?” asked Betty.

“Yes,” said Uncle Henry, “and it spins so steadily in that slanting position that the north end of its imaginary axis always points toward the same place, a point very close to the north star, or Polaris as it is called.”

“Polaris is named for the North Pole, I suppose,” said Peter.

“That’s right,” Uncle Henry replied. “Let’s get some scissors and we’ll use our big sheet of cardboard to make a cap for Paul’s head that will show you just how the slant of the earth’s axis makes it hotter in summer and colder in winter.”

“Ooh!” exclaimed Paul, “I always thought it was hot in summer because the earth got nearer to the sun then.”

“Lots of people think that, too,” said Uncle Henry, “but it isn’t so. The earth is really farther from the sun in summer.”

Betty ran for the scissors, and Uncle Henry cut out a big circle from the stiff cardboard. Then he cut out an opening in the centre of it that fitted Paul’s head just as a stiff straw hat would that was a size too big for him. The circle of cardboard dropped down until it rested on Paul’s ears and on the bridge of his nose. This cardboard brim represented the “plane of the earth’s equator,” just as the pane of glass represented the “plane of the ecliptic.” Since the “plane of the equator” is always at right angles to the slanting axis of the earth, the “plane of the equator” is always at a slant to the “plane of the ecliptic.”

If you will run a long hat-pin through an orange, and sink the orange exactly to its middle in a glass bowl filled with water, holding the hat-pin at a slant, you will see that the equator of the orange is at a slant with the surface of the water. Half of the orange’s equator curves up above the water, while half of it curves down under the water’s surface. If you fasten a cardboard ring around the orange at the equator the cardboard will then be at an angle with the surface of the water, which represents the “plane of the ecliptic.”

Uncle Henry cut two long strips from what was left of the cardboard and crossed the strips over the top of Paul’s head, fastening the four ends of them to the round cardboard brim close to his head.

After this Uncle Henry rolled a sheet of the scratch paper round a pencil, put rubber bands tightly around it, cut the end to bend up and make a foot and pinned the foot to the cardboard strips at the place where they crossed. When Paul had it all on he looked very funny with the pencil sticking straight up from the top of his head, and his eyes just peeping over the cardboard brim on each side of the strip down the middle of his nose.

“Now come on, Mr. Earth,” said Uncle Henry, “It’s time for you to spin round the lamp-sun for another year or two.”

So Paul held his head on a slant and kept it so that the pencil always pointed in the same direction as he went round the lamp. These four little pictures show how he looked at the four sides of the sun where the earth is in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn.

“Now,” said Uncle Henry, “you see that if we make a black dot on one of the cardboard strips about halfway between the cardboard brim, or the earth’s equator, and the pencil, or the North Pole, it will be about as far north as we are in the United States. And when Paul is in his Summer position, with the pencil slanting toward the ‘sun,’ you see that the sun’s rays beat down much straighter on the black dot than they do when he is on the other side of the lamp, with the pole slanting away from the ‘sun.’ That is why the Winter sun appears to be lower in the sky at noon than the Summer sun, and also why the Summer sun shines hotter on the earth than it does in Winter. Notice, too, that the rays from the lamp light up Paul’s head for quite a little way beyond the foot of the ‘pole’ when it slants toward the ‘sun,’ while when it slants away from the ‘sun’ the rays fail to reach the ‘pole’ at all. This means that in summer the sun shines a longer time upon the part of the earth that slants toward it. If you could look down from the ceiling at Paul’s head in his Summer position and in his Winter one you would see why.”

Uncle Henry quickly drew these two pictures of the top of a globe to show the children why the days are long in Summer and short in Winter at any point in the United States.

“It’s just like the hot water bottle mother kept in my bed that time I had a chill after swimming,” said Paul. “The hotter it was before she put it in the bed the slower it cooled off.”

“That’s the idea,” said Uncle Henry, “the longer the sun shines on any place on the earth the hotter it gets, and when the nights are as short as they are in Summer the place hasn’t long to cool off before it is round in the sun’s hot rays again. Now do you see why Summer is hotter than Winter?”

The children did.

“There’s one thing I don’t understand, though,” said Peter. “Why are there different stars in the sky in Winter than there are in Summer?”

“That’s easy to answer,” said Uncle Henry. “Look at Paul again—first when it’s ‘night’ on his face on the ‘Summer’ side of the lamp, and then when it is ‘night’ on his face on the ‘Winter’ side of the lamp.

“At ‘night’ in Summer Paul looks at the pictures on one end of the room. The cardboard brim, or ‘plane of the equator,’ is slanted up, above the ‘plane of the ecliptic.’”

This picture shows how Paul looked.

“But in Winter, at ‘night,’ Paul looks at quite different pictures, at the other end of the room. The cardboard brim is slanted down, below the level of the ‘plane of the ecliptic.’ This is why the path of the Winter Signs crosses the sky higher up than the path of the Summer Signs. In both Winter and Summer you must imagine the cardboard brim to be as transparent as glass, for the ‘plane of the equator’ is in reality only imaginary.”

This next picture shows how Paul looked at the constellations at “night” in Winter.

“Of course the north star and the stars for a considerable distance round the pole never set, and can be seen all night at any time of the year. It is only the ones that rise and set that go and come from our sight with the seasons. In reality they never leave us, for if it wasn’t for the sunlight getting in our eyes by day, we could see the Summer night star-pictures in the Winter daytime, and the Winter night star people in the Summer daytime. We are just looking at opposite ends of our big room in the universe on Winter nights and Summer nights, that’s all,” said Uncle Henry.

Uncle Henry took some folded papers from his pocket and spread them out on the table.

“Here are four maps of the sky,” he said, “which show the way it looks at different seasons at 9 o’clock in the evening—on January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st. You will see that the groups of stars around the pole are always in view, while the rest of the star people change with the seasons, but even the groups around the pole change their positions with the seasons.

“You have all seen the Swastika. It has been known and used as an ornament for hundreds of years, all over the world—by the American Indians, the Chinese, the East Indians, and many others. I’ll show you where I think all these widely separated people got the Swastika, and how it stands for the four seasons.”

Uncle Henry drew four little pictures showing the four positions in which the big dipper stands in the four different seasons, with its “pointer stars” always indicating the pole star.

Then he drew all four positions on one sheet of paper, like this:

And when heavy lines were drawn along the handles of the dippers and across the pole star from bowl to bowl the Swastika suddenly appeared like this:

The Society of Star-Gazers was very enthusiastic about the origin of the Swastika, and found the dipper in its different positions on all of the four maps that Uncle Henry had put on the table.

You can see the position of the dipper and all the other stars at January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and December 1st, at 9 o’clock in the evening, by looking at the four maps inside the covers of this book.

After the children had looked at all the four maps as long as they wanted to, Uncle Henry suddenly remembered to look at his watch and exclaimed,

“My goodness! I guess it’s about time the Society adjourned for to-night. Ten o’clock! I’ll get scolded for keeping you up so late.”

“I want to ask just one thing more,” pleaded Betty.

“All right, what is it?” said Uncle Henry.

“Who found all the sky people?”

“Well,” said Uncle Henry, “now that’s a long story. They were all found and named so long ago that nobody knows who did it. The inventors of the star people naturally thought they saw pictures in the sky of the things they were familar with in everyday life—the bear, the bull, the serpent, the archer, and so on. If they had had any steam engines then somebody would have drawn lines from star to star until they had a picture of one in the sky. In England the Great Bear or Dipper is usually called the ‘Plough’ and you can see why

“It is also called ‘Charles’ Wain’ or wagon.

“We only know that the constellations are very, very old, and that an ancient people living in the valley of the Euphrates river probably named most of them. The Babylonian Tablets, the oldest records known, show that the Zodiac constellations were known over 3000 years before the birth of Christ, which is now nearly 5000 years ago.”

“Can’t we have just one more poem before we go to bed?” said Paul.

“Yes,” said Uncle Henry, “but not one of mine. I’ll give you a little bit of a long poem that was written by a man named Aratos about 280 years before the wise men followed the star that told them where to find the new-born Christ. It has been running through my mind all the evening. This is it:

FOURTH WINTER EVENING

IN WHICH THE “SOCIETY” MEETS THE LAST OF THE STAR PEOPLE AND THE BEGINNING OF ASTRONOMY—AND BETTY PROPOSES A “NOTE” OF THANKS

The Society of Star-Gazers assembled upon the roof the next night with an eagerness that was tempered a little by regret that it was the last.

Uncle Henry saw this, and before starting to find the evening’s constellations with the children, told them a few of the many wonderful things to be seen among the stars with the aid of a small telescope.

He reminded them of the “little cloud” in Andromeda, called the Great Nebula, and said that there were not only many more of these wonderful clouds of star dust, but numbers of beautiful double stars, some of them lovely with tints of red, green or orange, and some that can be seen with an ordinary opera-glass.

Then he told them of the curious variable, or “winking” stars, which turn bright and faint alternately on a regular schedule, so many hours bright, and so many hours faint. Also he described the beauty of the planet Jupiter, surrounded by its four little moons, all of which could be seen with a small telescope.

Then the children began to feel more cheerful, for they saw that being introduced to the creatures and people of Skyland was only the beginning of the study of astronomy.

“So,” finished Uncle Henry, “we don’t need to feel that there is no more fun coming, for there are lots more faint constellations which are all beautiful, even though not plain enough for us to find easily in the beginning. Besides, if you ever journey to the South, beyond the earth’s equator, you will find a whole new sky full of marvelous people, and creatures, and objects—all pictured in the flashing southern heavens.”

“Well,” said Peter briskly, “what do we find to-night, Uncle Hen?”

“We’ll begin,” replied Uncle Henry, “with a person you may have heard of—Perseus, who killed the terrible Gorgon Medusa.”

“Oh, I know him,” cried Paul, “we read all ’bout him last year.”

“Quite right,” said Uncle Henry, “then you remember that when he had killed Medusa, and cut off her head with his sword, he had to hold the head with the terrible face away from him, because everybody who looked at that face was instantly turned to stone.”

“Yes, yes, we know!” chorused the Society.

“Well, now we’ll find Perseus, his sword, and the head of Medusa,” promised Uncle Henry. “All you have to do is to extend the line of Andromeda’s left leg and prolong it from her foot, straight out for about her whole length. (30) There you will find Algenib, the brightest star in Perseus. It is right in his neck, between his shoulders. From Algenib you can trace a row of stars downward, almost to the Pleiades in the bull’s shoulder. This row of stars is Perseus’ body and legs. Then find two stars above Algenib, one over the other, and you have his head and helmet.

“After that it is easy to start at Algenib and trace out his right arm, with the sword. A line drawn toward Perseus through the stars in Andromeda’s head and left hip points out the star Algol, which is the head of Medusa, held in Perseus’ left hand. (31) Algol is a famous variable star, which the ancients named ‘the dragon of the slowly winking eye.’”

The children soon found all of Perseus, and all took part in drawing his skeleton on the blackboard. Then they watched Algol in the sky, and expected to see it wink, until Uncle Henry told them that the wink is so slow that it takes seven hours for Algol to become faint and bright again, and that then two and three-quarter days pass before Algol winks again. This being the case the Society decided not to wait, and finished Perseus up so that he looked this way:

Uncle Henry added the lines with arrows to show how Algenib and Algol are found, with the help of Andromeda.

After Perseus was finished, Betty kept gazing at the sky. She seemed fascinated, and finally asked,

“Uncle Henry, there’s a perfectly lovely star just a little way in front of Perseus, and three little ones near it. If I could name stars I would call them ‘the hen and chickens,’ wouldn’t you?”

All the children looked, and easily found the beautiful star. They couldn’t have missed it, and neither can you, for it is one of the most brilliant in the sky and there are no others like it nearby.

“Yes,” said Uncle Henry, “the big star and the three little ones do look like a hen and her chickens. I would call them that, too, Betty, but hundreds of years ago somebody named the bright star Capella, which means ‘the goat,’ and called the three little stars ‘the kids,’ so you see that they are named already.”

“A kid is the baby of a goat, isn’t it, Uncle Hen?” inquired Peter.

“Yes, that’s the idea,” said Uncle Henry, and went on, “Betty happens to have picked out the brightest star in the last constellation we are going to find. It is called Auriga, or the Charioteer. He hasn’t his chariot with him.”

“How do we find Auriga?” inquired Paul.

“He is very plain, almost as plain as Orion himself,” said Uncle Henry. “Capella is at one corner of a five-sided figure, called a ‘pentagon.’ (32) It is also in the left shoulder of Auriga. Find the tip of the left horn of Taurus, the Bull, and you will have another corner of the pentagon, and at the same time the right foot of Auriga. When you have those points it is easy to find the other three corners, which are the right shoulder, left foot, and the right hand of Auriga. He holds his whip in that hand. Even though he had to leave his chariot when he went into the sky, he insisted on taking his whip along. It comes in very handy, too, sometimes, when the two lions up there become fretful and uneasy. When you have found Auriga’s shoulder stars, just draw two lines upward to a star above and between them and you finish the charioteer’s skeleton. The star at the point where the lines cross is in his head. See him, everybody?”

The children had no trouble in putting in the stars and drawing the skeleton. Neither will you, for Auriga is very conspicuous, and almost straight overhead in the evening about Christmas time.

This is the way Auriga looked on the blackboard:

When the children had finished looking at Auriga, and Capella the Goat and her three babies, Betty drew herself up very straight and said, trying to look very dignified,

“Mr. Chairman, I move that The Society of Star-Gazers give Uncle Henry a note of thanks for giving us such an instructive, and—and—oh, we’ve liked your Christmas present an awful lot, Uncle Henry!”

Peter was going to say that it was a vote of thanks that people got from societies, but Betty was so earnest and dignified that he didn’t really want to take her down just then, so he joined Paul in seconding the motion and was appointed by Betty as a committee of one to write the “note” and deliver it to Uncle Henry later.

Uncle Henry looked quite serious, for him, and said that he had made up a little poem that they might like to hear while standing under the Christmas stars.

The Society voted unanimously in the affirmative, so Uncle Henry recited,

Then, in a moment more, Uncle Henry and the children were gone, and the sleepless, faithful stars were alone, brooding lovingly over their tiny baby brother, which we call the great world.

The author desires to express his indebtedness to the following books, which have given him many hours of enlightening pleasure while riding the star-gazing hobby:

He also wishes to add his appreciation of the monthly pleasure given by “The Evening Sky Map,” published by Leon Barritt.

Printed in the United States of America