वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

46 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
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 23½° 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 celes-
tial 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 completion of one such circuit, whether
of the sun or of the stars, will serve as a measure of ordinary
days, or periods of 24 hours, during the long sunshine or night of
six months. When about 180 such rounds, (the exact number will
depend upon the difference in the durations of summer and winter
noticed in the last chapter), are completed, the sun will again
go down below the horizon, and the stars in the northern
hemisphere, which had disappeared in his light, will become
visible all at once, and not rise one after the other as with us.
The light of the sun had, so to say, eclipsed them, though they
were over the head of the observer; but as soon as this obstruction
is removed the whole northern starry hemisphere will again appear
to spin round the observer for the remaining period of six months.
The horizontal motion of the celestial hemisphere, only one long