midnight
Phobar was astonished . Two new stars discovered within twenty-four hours in the same part of the heavens , both of the fourth magnitude ! But his surprise was as nothing when on the succeeding night , even while he watched , a third new star appeared in line with these , but much closer . At midnight he first noticed a pin-point of faint light ; by one o'clock the star was of eighth magnitude . At two it was a brilliant sun of the second magnitude blazing away from Earth like the others at a rate of twelve hundred miles per second . And on the next evening , and the next , and the next , other new stars appeared until there were seven in all , every one on a line in the same constellation Hercules , every one with the same radiance and the same proper motion , though of varying size ! * * * * * Phobar had broadcast his discovery to incredulous astronomers ; but as star after star appeared nightly , all the telescopes on Earth were turned toward one of the most spectacular cataclysms that history recorded .