"Spica" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Spica (Alpha Virginis), was announced by Dr. Vogel, April 24, 1890,[1445] to belong to the novel category, with the difference, however, of possessing a nearly dark, instead of a brilliantly lustrous companion. In ...
— A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century - Fourth Edition • Agnes M. (Agnes Mary) Clerke
... dissimilar in density. It was obvious that if the orbit of a star with an obscure companion was inclined to the line of sight, the companion would pass above or below the bright star and produce no variation of its light. Such systems might be numerous in the heavens. In Vogel's photographs, Spica, which was not variable, by a small shifting of its lines revealed a backward and forward periodical pulsation due to orbital motion. As the pair whirled round their common center of gravity, the bright star was sometimes advancing, at others receding. They revolved in about four days, each star ...
— Scientific American Supplement No. 819 - Volume XXXII, Number 819. Issue Date September 12, 1891 • Various
... The Ambassador from Spica VII, a short jolly-looking little fellow, with a head like a seal's, long arms, short legs and a ...
— Lone Star Planet • Henry Beam Piper and John Joseph McGuire
... stars alone it would have been difficult. Therefore I remember that in order to be exact, I calculated the future conjunctions of those two planets," and he pointed to Saturn and Jupiter. "Finding that one of these occurred near yonder star," and he indicated the bright orb, Spica, "at a certain time, I determined that then I would awake. Behold! There are the stars as I engraved them from my foreknowledge, upon this chart, and there those two great planets hang in conjunction. Daughter Yva, my wisdom has not failed me. This world of ours has travelled round ...
— When the World Shook - Being an Account of the Great Adventure of Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot • H. Rider Haggard |
