190 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



northeast. It would be well to begin at nine o'clock, about the 1st of 

 June, and watch the motion of the heavens for two or three hours. 

 At the commencement of the observations you will find the stars in 

 Bootes, Virgo, and Lyra in the positions I have just mentioned, while 

 half-way down the western sky will be seen the Sickle of Leo (see 

 " Popular Science Monthly " for April). The brilliant Procyon and 

 Capella will be found almost ready to set in the west and northwest, 

 respectively. Between Procyon and Capella, and higher above the 

 horizon, shine the twin stars in Gemini, with the planets Venus and 

 Saturn, near each other, below them. There will be no difficulty in 

 recognizing Venus, for it is now brighter than any other star in the 

 heavens. Saturn would be regarded also as a very bright star, but for 

 the overpowering contrast with its more brilliant sister. Looking over 

 into the south, the observer will see the planet Jupiter a little east of 

 Spica in Virgo, and second only to Venus in brilliancy. 



In an hour Saturn and Venus will be setting, and Jupiter will be 

 well past the meridian. In another hour the observer will perceive 

 that the constellations are approaching the places given to them in our 

 map, and at midnight he will find them all in their assigned positions. 

 A single evening spent in observations of this sort will teach him 

 more about the places of the stars than he could learn from a dozen 

 books. 



Taking, now, the largest opera-glass you can get (I have before 

 said that the diameter of the object-glasses should not be less than 1*5 

 inch, and, I may add, the larger they are the better), find the constel- 

 lation Scorpio, and its chief star Antares. The map shows you where 

 to look for it at midnight on the 1st of June. If you prefer to begin 

 at nine o'clock at that date, then, instead of looking directly in the 

 south for Scorpio, you must expect to see it just rising in the south- 

 east. You will recognize Antares by its fiery color, as well as by 

 the striking arrangement of its surrounding stars. There are few 

 constellations which bear so close a resemblance to the objects they 

 are named after as Scorpio. It does not require a very violent exer- 

 cise of the imagination to see in this long, winding trail of stars a 

 gigantic scorpion, with its head to the west, and flourishing its up- 

 raised sting that glitters with a pair of twin stars, as if ready to strike. 

 Readers of the old story of Phaeton's disastrous attempt to drive the 

 chariot of the Sun for a day will remember it was the sight of this 

 threatening monster that so terrified the ambitious youth that he lost 

 control of Apollo's horses, and came near burning the earth up by 

 running the Sun into it. 



Antares rather gains in redness when viewed with a glass. Its 

 color is very remarkable, and it is a curious circumstance that with 

 powerful telescopes a small, bright-green star is seen apparently al- 

 most touching it. Antares belongs to Secchi's third type of suns, 

 that in which the spectroscopic appearances suggest the existence of a 



