Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/82

STAR 56 STAR CHAITBER Its annual motion is 5" .2, which is ex- ceeded, however, by that of Groombridge, 1830, a star of the 7th magnitude, whose proper motion is 7". As a general rule, the brightest stars have the great- est proper motion, and stars below the 3d magnitude move only a few seconds in 100 years. This motion in the heavens cannot be taken even as an approximate estimate of the velocity with which any star is moving, since only the portion of the real velocity which is resolved perpendicular to the line of sight is measurable. Spec- trum analysis has, however, given us a means of measuring the velocity along the line of sight. The physical meaning of the dark absorption lines which cross the spectra of the sun and stars has been pointed out under Spectrum Analysis. They indicate the absence of certain rays of definite refrangibility and wave length from the solar or stellar light which reaches us. Since each star spectrum has its own peculiar lines, these must be due to absorption by the star's own outer envelope or atmosphere. Now, exactly as ocean waves will appear shorter or longer than they really are according as the observer is sailing against or with them, so will the wave length of each in- dividual ray be shortened or lengthened according as we approach or recede from the source of light, and each absorption line in the spectrum, corresponding as it does to a ray of definite wave length, will be displaced toward the violet or red respectively. By comparison with the spectrum of the substance to which a determined portion of these lines cor- responds, this displacement may be measured, and from its relation to the particular wave length the ratio of the relative velocity of approach or recession of the star to the velocity of light can be easily calculated. Stars which show periodic variations of magnitude are called variable stars. Among these are Mira and Algal. Up to 1920 about 750 of these stars were known. Their average period of variation is about 300 days and some are 1,000 times brighter at maximum than at minimum. It is be- lieved that these are the giants among the stars. At their maximum some are 150 times brighter than the sun. STARBOARD, the right side of a ship when the eye is directed toward the head, stem, or prow. STAR CATALOGUES, lists of cata- logues_ of the stars arranged according to their positions, generally their right ascensions and declinations, though some of the early catalogues were ar- ranged according to the positions in latitude and longitude. The early cata- logues, and those accompanying urano- metries, are arranged in constellations, and then in the order of position under each constellation. This system was of course fit only for the few stars visible with the naked eye. Modern catalogues resulting from accurate determinations of position give the places to hundredths of a second of time and tenths of a second of arc. Such catalogues also give the precession of each star in right ascension and declination, in order to reduce the position to any desired epoch, for the places of the stars are always changing, or rather the co-ordi- nate plane to which they are referred is always shifting its position on account of the precession of the equinoxes. Tha epoch of a star catalogue is the date to which its places refer, and is always taken as the beginning of some year, generally some decade or quarter of a century. STAR CHAMBER, a British tribtmal which met in the old council chamber of the palace of Westminster, and is said to have received its name from the roof of that apartment being decorated with gilt stars, or because in it "starres" or Jewish bonds had been kept. It is sup- posed to have originated in early times out of the exercise of jurisdiction by the king's council, whose powers in this re- spect had greatly declined when in 1487 Henry VII., anxious to repress the in- dolence and illegal exactions of power- ful landowners, revived and remodelled them, or, according to some investi- gators, instituted what was practically an entirely new tribunal. The statute conferred on the Chancellor, the Treas- urer, and the Keeper of the Privy Seal, with the assistance of a bishop and a temporal Lord of the Council, and Chief-justices, or two other justices in their absence, a jurisdiction to punish, without a jury, the misdemeanors of sheriffs and juries, as well as riots and unlawful assemblies. Henry VIII. added to the other members of the court the president of the Council, and ulti- mately all the privy-councillors were members of it. The civil jurisdiction of the Star Chamber comprised controversies be- tween English and foreign merchants, testamentary causes, disputes between the heads and commonalty of corpora- tions, lay and ecclesiastical, and claims to deodands. As a criminal court it could inflict any punishment short of death, and had cognizance of forgery, perjury, riots, maintenance, fraud, li- bels, conspiracy, etc. Treason, murder, and felony could be brought under the