Page 251 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

3& ,· SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

If an observer is stationed at the North Pole, the first thing
that will strike him is the motion of the celestial sphere above
his head. Living in the temperate and tropical zones, we see
all heavenly objects rise in the east and set in the west, some
passing over our head, other travelling obliquely. But to the
man at the Pole, the heavenly dome ahove will seem to revolve
round him from left to right, somewhat like the motion of a hat
or umbrella turned over one's head. The stars will not rise and
set, but will move round and round, in horizontal planes, turning
like a potter's wheel, and starting on a second round when the
first is finished, and so on, during the long night of six months.
The sun, when he is above the horizon for 6 months, would also
appear to revolve in the same way. The centre of the celestial
dome over the head of the observer will be the celestial North
Pole, and naturally enough his north will be over-head, while the
invisible regions below the horizon would be in the souch. As
regards the eastern and western points of the compass, the daily
rotation of the earth round its axis will make them revolve round
the observer from right to left, thereby causing the celestial ob-
jects in the east to daily revolve round and round along the hori-
zon from left to right, and not rise in the east, pass overhead,
and set every day in the west, as with us, in the temperate or
the tropical zone. In fact, to an observer stationed at the North
Pole, the northern celestial hemisphere will alone be visible
spinning round and round over his head, and the southern half
with all the stars in it, will always remain invisible, while the
celestial equator, dividing the two, will be his celestial horizon.
To such a man the sun going into the northern hemisphere in his
annual course will appear as coming up from the south, and
he will express the idea by saying that " the sun has risen in the
south, " howsoever strange the expression may seem to us. After
the sun has risen in this way in the south,-and the sun will rise
there only once a year,-he will be constantly visible for 6
months, during which time he will attain a height of about 13~ o
above the horizon, and then begin to lower down until he drops
into the south below the horizon. It will be a long and continuous
sunshine of 6 months, but, as the celestial dome over the head
of the observer will complete one revolution in 24 hours, the
sun also will make one horizontal circuit round the observer
in every 24 hours and to the observer at the North Pole the comple-