Astronomy and the Bible;

114 ASTRONOMYANDTHEBIBLE

flight, flyingineverysecond 186,000miles, cancom-
pleteitsmightyjourney!
"Ifthemind revoltsatthisconclusion;ifthedis-
tancebetoogreatforcomprehension;ifthescaleof
theuniversethussuggestedevenstaggerstheimagina-
tion,Icanonlysaythatallsubsequentobservationhas
confirmedinthemostsatisfactorymannertheaccuracy
of Bessel's results. This great astronomer first led
the way across themighty gulf which separates us
from thefixedstars. Thedistance oncepassed,the
routehasbecomecomparatively easy,andsucceeding
observershavedeterminedtheparallaxofasufficient
numberofstarstoshowthattheirresultsareentirely
trustworthy."

—

Gen.O.M.Mitchel.
Thepolestar,ornorthstar,one ofthemostdistant
measured,is between forty-fiveand sixty light-years
fromus;thatis,thelightfromthepolestar,speeding
attherateofoverelevenmillionsofmilesaminute,
occupies from forty-fivetosixty years inmeasuring
thedistancebetweenthestarandus. Yetsuchenor-
mousdistancesareasmerepointscomparedwiththe
awfulmeasureofspaceitself.
Anotherstar,AlphaCentauri,wasobservedforits
parallaxin 1842 andin1851,bytwodifferentobserv-
ers. Thefirstresultwas3.6,andthesecond3.5,Hght
years. "Observations madetodeterminewhetherthe
starshowsanysignofanannualchangeofplacecor-
respondingtotheearth'sannualorbitalmotion,were
rewardedbythedetectionofa veryappreciable dis-
placement. Infact,owingtothemotionoftheearth,
eachyear,in anearlycircularorbit185,000,000miles