34 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



which is steadily approaching the 

 evening heavens, is the great Jupiter, 

 but this will not enter our evening sky 

 during the present month. During the 

 early morning hours, however, it is 

 most conspicuous as it shines out with 

 its golden radiance in the south, on the 

 eastern border of the wonderful sum- 

 mer branch of the Milk}' Way. 

 The Stars in June. 

 Beside the planets, or Wandering 

 Stars, whose positions in the heavens 

 are continually changing, the regular, 



gular little sky figure known as the 

 Dolphin, or Job's Coffin ; above this 

 and lying along the exact center of the 

 Milky Way, is the beautiful Northern 

 Cross, now entirely risen above the 

 ground, while above the Cross and 

 now halfway to the zenith, there 

 shines out Vega, the most brilliant of 

 all the stars of the northern sky. 



The re-appearance of these summer 

 stars has again brought the wonderful 

 cluster of suns in Hercules into fav- 

 orable position for observation and 



4 ioz<>oo.oooj,!:fi- 

 gitfes--- L 





UUNE /. 



Plane of 

 Earth's Orbit 



Figure 2. Showing the path of the new comet in relation to the moving earth 

 rapidly receding from us. 



The comet is now 



ceaseless progression of the constella- 

 tions has, since last month, consider- 

 ably modified the face of our evening 

 sky. Arcturus, that immensely great 

 and distant sun, now rides high in the 

 heavens in the south, the brilliant 

 groups of Taurus, Orion and Canis 

 Major have disappeared for the present 

 year, and Gemini has already sunk 

 halfway below the ground. But in the 

 southeast we see the striking Scor- 

 pion, almost entirely risen, while bor- 

 dering the eastern horizon from the 

 south through the east to the north- 

 west is the beautiful summer branch 

 of the Milky Way, bearing upon its 

 golden stream the bright constellation 

 of the Swan. To the south is Aquila, 

 with its bright star Altair at A, Figure 

 I, a yellow star which is drifting 

 rather rapidly across the face of the 

 heavens notwithstanding that it is so 

 far distant from us that the light with 

 which we view it started on its long 

 journey toward us nearly sixteen 

 years ago. 



To the rigdit of Altair is the sin- 



the observer should not fail to examine 

 this with a small telescope. It will be 

 found at the point B, almost in a 

 straight line between the stars C and 

 D. It is indeed so brilliant that it 

 may be clearly seen with the eye alone 

 when the air is clear and the light of 

 the moon is absent. But in even a 

 small telescope the appearance of this 

 cloud of suns is one of marvellous 

 beauty. There are here thousands of 

 stars which from the immeasurable 

 depths of space have been gathered to- 

 gether into one compact mass, and 

 although great streams of suns extend 

 out from the cloud in every direction 

 it still has an approximately spherical 

 form. In a small telescope only the 

 stars near the borders are separately 

 distinguished, those nearer the center 

 merging into one uniform light. But 

 under the highest powers the swarm is 

 resolvable to its very center, no less 

 than sixty thousand separate stars 

 having thus been counted. Whether 

 any or all of these distant suns have 

 svstems of worlds, more or less like 



