Astronomy Without a Telescope
- I was introduced to the Duke of York19 and Lord Jim, both of whom are superior to any Indians I have yet met. An old man named Larkinum was chief of the Clallams, but he abdicated in favor of his son, the Duke. Lord Jim is very intelligent and can speak English quite well. He took a great deal of pride in showing me some papers he had received from different whites, principally sea captains. I was much amused at their contents for most of them abused him without reserve, calling him a liar, a thief, a drunkard and a gambler. Some of them were curious literary productions, abounding in flowers of speech. Lord Jim, of course, imagined these certificates of his rascality to contain nothing but praise, and begged me to add mine to the number, which, I think, will help him as much as any of the others. I procured a Skagit Indian named Goliah to act as guide. I think he will do well.
- Phecda (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
PHECDA (Gamma Ursae Majoris). Few figures in the sky move us more than the Big Dipper, its seven bright stars laid out in a long bent row that the British call the Plough. All but one of its stars are second magnitude, though Phecda, the third one in from the end of the bowl, and southernmost of the bowl stars, is just on the edge of third (2.44).
- Phecda (Wikipedia)
Phecda /ˈfɛkdə/, also called Gamma Ursae Majoris (γ Ursae Majoris, abbreviated Gamma UMa, γ UMa), is a star in the constellation of Ursa Major. Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified. Based upon parallax measurements with the Hipparcos astrometry satellite, it is located at distance of around 83.2 light-years (25.5 parsecs) from the Sun.
