112 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The Starry Heavens in September. 



BY PROFESSOR ERIC DOOLITTLE OF THE 

 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



The coming of September witnesses 

 the almost complete withdrawal of 

 the striking midsummer group of the 

 Scorpion from our evening sky : as 

 yet no equally brilliant constellation 

 has come to take its place, for the 

 beautiful Taurus, within whose boun- 

 daries we find the Pleiades and the 

 Hyades, is still well below the eastern 



little over a month ; while in the south- 

 east we see the reddish Fomalhaut, a 

 solitary star, which lies no less than 

 thirty degrees below the Celestial 

 Equator, and is thus the farthest south 

 of all bright stars visible in our lati- 

 tude.. Though to us this beautiful star 

 is always seen so low in the south, to 

 those near the earth's equator it is high 

 in the heavens, while to the watchers 

 in the observatories of Chile and the 

 Cape of Good Hope it passes exactly 



NO^Th 



South 



Figure 1. The Constellations at 9 P. M., September 1. (If facing south, hold the map upright. If 

 facing east, hold East below. If facing west, hold West below. If facing north, hold the map inverted.) 



horizon in the early evening. By the 

 beginning of next month, however, 

 these latter star figures will appear to 

 lierald the long train of bright winter 

 groups which will then be close at 

 hand. 



The September Stars. 

 In the extreme northeast the beauti- 

 ful golden-yellow Capella again begins 

 its upward climb over our evening 

 heavens, after its brief absence of but 



through the zenith. Five thousand 

 years ago Fomalhaut marked the Win- 

 ter Solstice ; at this time in Persia it was 

 marked out as a Royal Star, one of the 

 four guardians of heaven who watched 

 over and protected the other stars. 



Having examined with a small tele- 

 scope the beautiful flashing light of 

 Fomalhaut, the observer may turn to 

 many other objects of interest in this 

 part of the sky. Thus the star at A 

 Figure I, is very easily seen to be made 



