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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



figure can now be easily traced out 

 from the extreme tip of the tail below 

 the North Star to the striking quad- 

 rangle of stars at M, Figure 1, which 

 mark its head. All of its stars marked 

 A in Figure 1 are easily seen double 

 in a small telescope, and some of them 

 are very beautiful objects. The high- 

 est star of all, at the upper end of the 

 group marking the head, is a celebrated 

 star, which 4000 years ago was nearer 

 the pole of the heavens than any other. 

 Many early temples were dedicated to 

 it, and it was worshiped in the Boeo- 

 tian Thebes — the City of the Dragon. 



September 15 at 1 hour 3 minutes, A. 

 M. ; on September 17 at 10 hours 20 

 minutes P. M., and on September 20 at 

 7 hours 9 minutes, P. M. (Eastern 

 Standard time). 



Above Perseus there is the well- 

 known Cassiopeia, between which and 

 the Dragon there is the rather faint but 

 most interesting group known as Ce- 

 pheus. At this time of the year the 

 observer will have but little difficulty 

 in tracing out this constellation, which 

 includes nearly all of the stars along 

 the Milky Way lying between Cassi- 

 opeia and the Northern Cross. AYith 



Figure 2. — The square Figure 1 enlarged to show the position of Uranus. 



The remarkable modern discovery of 

 the aberration of light was made from 

 observations on this star. 



On the opposite side of the pole from 

 the Dragon there will be seen the bril- 

 liant yellow solar star Capella which 

 now lies almost on the horizon. Above 

 this stands Perseus, the rescuer of An- 

 dromeda, whose place is marked by an 

 irregular group of bright stars, one of 

 which is the wonderful demon star, 

 Algol, five-sixths of whose light is 

 periodically cut off by the passage of 

 a darker star between Algol and us. 

 This star may be seen to have reached 

 its greatest faintness this month on 



a small telescope he will find that each 

 of the stars marked A is an interesting 

 double, while at the point R, nearly 

 midway between the stars L and K, 

 but a little above them, there is a 

 remarkable red and variable star. This 

 is sometimes of so deep a red as to be 

 the reddest bright star of the northern 

 heavens; at other times it is orange 

 merely. Its color is best studied by 

 comparing it with the nearby white 

 star at K. Its brightness also varies 

 irregularly, so that sometimes it emits 

 more than twice as much light as at 

 others. 



It is interesting to note that were 



