Astronomy for amateurs . s 5. The length of this republic, from Atlas and Pleioneto Celaeno, is ^/^^ of time, or 1° 6 of arc; the breadth,from Merope to Asterope, is 36.* In the quadrilateral, the length from Alcyone toElectra is 36^, and the breadth from Merope to Maia25^ To us it appears as though, if the Full Moon wereplaced in front of this group of nine stars, she wouldcover it entirely, for to the naked eye she appears muchlarger than all the Pleiades together. But this is not sOoShe only measures 31, less than half the distance fromAtlas to Celaeno; she is hardly broader than the distan
Astronomy for amateurs . s 5. The length of this republic, from Atlas and Pleioneto Celaeno, is ^/^^ of time, or 1° 6 of arc; the breadth,from Merope to Asterope, is 36.* In the quadrilateral, the length from Alcyone toElectra is 36^, and the breadth from Merope to Maia25^ To us it appears as though, if the Full Moon wereplaced in front of this group of nine stars, she wouldcover it entirely, for to the naked eye she appears muchlarger than all the Pleiades together. But this is not sOoShe only measures 31, less than half the distance fromAtlas to Celaeno; she is hardly broader than the distance - For the explanation of the angular distances of degrees, minutes, and sec-ondsj see Chapter XI, on Methods of Measurement. 84 THE STARS, SUNS OF THE INFINITE from Alcyone to Atlas, and could pass between Meropeand Taygeta without touching either of these is a perennial and very curious optical the Moon passes in front of the Pleiades, andoccults them successively, it is hard to believe ones. Fig. 26.—Occultation of the Pleiades by the Moon. eyes. The fact occurred, e, g., on July 23, 1897, duringa fine occultation observed at the authors laboratoryof Juvisy (Fig. 26). Photography here discovers to us, not 6, 9, I2, 15,or 20 stars, but hundreds and millions. 85 ASTRONOMY FOR AMATEURS These are the most briUiant flowers of the celestialgarden. We, alas, can but glance at them rapidly. In con-templating them we are transported into immensitiesboth of space and time, for the stellar periods measuredby these distant universes often overpower in their mag-nitude the rapid years in which our terrestrial days are
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