Astronomy and the Bible;

CELESTIALMAGNITUDES 115

indiameter,thestarAlphaCentauriappearstotrace

outeachyearaminuteovalpathonthecelestialsphere,

thegreater axisoftheovalbeingequalinlength to

about%oopartofthemoon'sapparentdiameter.

"It follows from this that in round numbers the

distance ofAlphaCentauri fromus isabout twenty

milHons of millions of miles. The distance of the

earth fromthe sunshrinksinto insignificance beside

this enormous gap. Even Neptune, though circling

roundthesunatadistancethirtytimes fartherthan

that which separates us from that luminary, is yet

relatively so muchnearer than Alpha Centauri, that

asunfillingthewholeorbitofNeptunewouldappear,

asseenfromthatstar,butabout%oo aslargeasthe

sunappearstous."—RichardProctor.

Donotmissthis. Let us putit inanother way

:

Ifthesunweresolargethatitreachedoutonallsides
as far asto theorbitof Neptune,—inother words,
if it were a blazing sun 5,583 millions of miles in
diameter,—seenfromAlphaCentauri,itwouldappear
but%ooaslarge asthe sunappears tous;itwould
seemlikeamerepointoflightinspace.
Viewed at such stupendous distances as only as-
tronomy comprehends, systems and universes seem
todwindle tomere pinpoints when relatedto some
distant parts. "It is foundbythemost eminentas-
tronomersoftheage,andthemostperfectinstruments
evermade,thattheparallaxoftheneareststarsdoes
notexceedthefour-thousandthpartofadegree,ora
singlesecond." AlphaCentauriisthenearest,having
aparallaxof.9ofasecond,"sothat,ifthewholegreat