The Heavens in November. 



By Professor Eric Doolittle of the University of Pennsylvania. 



November is the "Pleiad-month" ; 

 had we retained the beautiful little 

 group of the Pleiades in the important 

 position assigned to it by many early 

 peoples, our New Year would occur on 

 the 20th of the present month, when 

 the "Seven Sisters" are exactly opposite 



even with the naked eye ; an opera-glass 

 or small telescope reveals a far greater 

 complexity in the apparently simple 

 cluster, while it was reserved for the 

 modern photographic plate to show us 

 that this entire group of suns is im- 

 mersed in and mixed up with a most re- 



South 



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

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



the sun in the heavens, and this day 

 would be for us a day of important, 

 feasts and national festivals. 



Now, however, this little star figure 

 is hardly known at all, except to those 

 who take pleasure in watching the face 

 of the sky. In its delicate beauty the 

 little group is well worthy of study, 



markable nebulous cloud whose incon- 

 ceivably vast streamers join star with 

 star and fill the whole region with a 

 faintly shining light- Lastly, a careful 

 study of this light with our most refined 

 modern instruments seems to show that 

 it is reflected light, so that what we see 

 is apparently an opaque cloud faintly 



