{"product_id":"2940013680432","title":"The New Sun","description":"From the time that he had taken up the study of astronomy as a pleasant\u003cbr\u003emeans of spending his newly acquired leisure, and had built himself a\u003cbr\u003esmall but well-equipped observatory as an adjunct to his house, which\u003cbr\u003estood on one of the highest slopes of Leith Hill, Mequillen had formed\u003cbr\u003ethe habit of rising from his bed every two or three hours of a cloudy\u003cbr\u003enight to see if the sky had cleared. To some men such a habit would have\u003cbr\u003ebeen highly inconvenient, for many obvious reasons. But Mequillen was in\u003cbr\u003ea lucky position. He was unmarried; he possessed much more than ample\u003cbr\u003emeans; he had therefore no business or profession to attend to, and\u003cbr\u003eaccordingly no train to catch of a morning in order to keep office\u003cbr\u003ehours. He could sleep at any time of the day he chose; and if he did\u003cbr\u003ejump out of bed at two o'clock in the morning, to find that the sky was\u003cbr\u003estill cloudy, he could jump back and go to sleep again on the instant.\u003cbr\u003eAnd he was, moreover, an enthusiast of the first order.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn a certain night in the February of 19--, Mequillen, who had gone to\u003cbr\u003ebed at ten o'clock, suddenly awoke, switched on the electric light at\u003cbr\u003ethe side of his bed, and, seeing that it was then ten minutes past\u003cbr\u003etwelve, sprang out, shuffled himself into his thickly padded\u003cbr\u003edressing-gown, and hurried up the winding stair which led to the\u003cbr\u003eobservatory. One glance into the night showed him a perfectly clear sky.\u003cbr\u003eFrom the vast dome of heaven, wondrously blue, the stars shone out like\u003cbr\u003epoints of fire. And Mequillen, with a sigh of satisfaction, began his\u003cbr\u003ework at the telescope, comparing the sky, field by field, with his star\u003cbr\u003echart, on the chance of finding new variable stars. After his usual\u003cbr\u003efashion, he was immediately absorbed, and the sky remaining clear, he\u003cbr\u003ewent on working, unconscious of time, until a deep-toned clock in the\u003cbr\u003eroom beneath struck the hour of three. Then Mequillen started, and\u003cbr\u003erealised that he had been so absorbed that he had not noticed the\u003cbr\u003estriking of one or two, and he leaned back from the telescope in a\u003cbr\u003esuddenly assumed attitude of relaxation, stretching his arms, and\u003cbr\u003ecasting up his eyes to the still clear vault above him. The next instant\u003cbr\u003ehe became rigid; the next he began to tremble with excitement; the next\u003cbr\u003ehe could have shouted for joy. For there, in the constellation which\u003cbr\u003eastronomers have named Andromeda, Mequillen detected a new star!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe knew as he gazed and gazed, intoxicated with the delight and wonder\u003cbr\u003eof his discovery, that the burning and glittering object at which he was\u003cbr\u003elooking had never shown its light to man before. There was no need to\u003cbr\u003eturn to his star charts. Mequillen, being a rich man, was always\u003cbr\u003eequipped with the latest information from all the great observatories of\u003cbr\u003ethe world. That star, burning with such magnificence, was on no chart.\u003cbr\u003eNay, he himself had taken a photograph of that particular field in the\u003cbr\u003eheavens only twenty-four hours previously, wherein were stars to the\u003cbr\u003etwelfth magnitude; but the star at which he gazed was not amongst them.\u003cbr\u003eIt had suddenly blazed up and as he watched he saw it visibly, plainly,\u003cbr\u003eincrease in brightness and magnitude.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079650099440,"sku":"2940013680432","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013680432_p0.jpg?v=1763583902","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013680432","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}