MMER AND WINTER 40

JUPITER AND ONE OF HIS MOONS 70

THE PLANET SATURN AND TWO OF HIS MOONS 78

FLAMES FROM THE SUN 100

THE COMET IN THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY 104

A STICK THRUST INTO THE WATER APPEARS CROOKED 114

CONSTELLATIONS NEAR THE POLE STAR 150

ORION AND HIS NEIGHBOURS 154

THE SPECTRUM OF THE SUN AND SIRIUS 168

ILLUSTRATIONS

IN BLACK AND WHITE

PAGE

THE MOON _facing_ 24

AN ECLIPSE OF THE MOON 28

AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 29

THE MOON RAISING THE TIDES 30

COMPARATIVE SIZES OF THE PLANETS 35

DIFFERENT PHASES OF VENUS 51

ORBITS OF MARS, THE EARTH, VENUS, AND MERCURY 55

MAP OF MARS _facing_ 56

ORBITS OF THE EARTH AND MARS 63

JUPITER AND HIS PRINCIPAL MOONS 72

SUN-SPOTS _facing_ 98

A GREAT COMET " 118

THE GREAT NEBULA IN ANDROMEDA " 202

THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF STARS

CHAPTER I

THE EARTH

It is a curious fact that when we are used to things, we often do not
notice them, and things which we do every day cease to attract our
attention. We find an instance of this in the curious change that comes
over objects the further they are removed from us. They grow smaller and
smaller, so that at a distance a grown-up person looks no larger than a
doll; and a short stick planted in the ground only a few feet away
appears as long as a much longer one at ten times the distance. This
process is going on all round us every minute: houses, trees, buildings,
animals, all seem larger or smaller in proportion to their distance from
us. Some