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Bible Encyclopedias
Asteria
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or or Star-Stone (from Gr. a6Tip, star), a name applied to such ornamental stones as exhibit when cut en cabochon a luminous star. The typical asteria is the starsapphire, generally a bluish-grey corundum, milky or opalescent, with a star of six rays. (See Sapphire.) In red corundum the stellate reflexion is less common, and hence the star-ruby occasionally found with the star-sapphire in Ceylon is among the most valued of "fancy stones." When the radiation is shown by yellow corundum, the stone is called star-topaz. Cymophane, or chatoyant chrysoberyl, may also be asteriated. In all these cases the asterism is due to the reflexion of light from twinlamellae or from fine tubular cavities or thin enclosures definitely arranged in the stone. The astrion of Pliny is believed to have been our moonstone, since it is described as a colourless stone from India having within it the appearance of a star shining with the light of the moon. All star-stones were formerly regarded with much superstition.
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Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Asteria'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/a/asteria.html. 1910.
