The Heavens in December. 



By Professor Eric Doolittle of the University of Pennsylvania- 



By far the most striking- star groups 

 of the heavens are those which now 

 fill the eastern sky. Even one who sel- 

 dom looks upward and who hardly 

 knows one star from another is apt to 

 have his attention arrested by this 

 beautiful display and to perhaps won- 



The groups of Taurus, Orion and 

 Gemini have now mounted high above 

 the eastern horizon. In this region 

 there also shine the golden Capella and 

 the bluish Procyon, while the Greater 

 Dog Star, Sirius, the greatest sun of 

 all, is just emerging from below the 



rJOPTH 



SOUTH 



Figure 1. The Constellations at 9 P. M., December 1. (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.) 



der why the stars seem to him so un- 

 usually bright, probably not at all 

 knowing that the heavenly objects 

 which shine upon these, the earliest of 

 our winter evenings, are wholly differ- 

 ent from the fainter stars which are to 

 be seen on the evenings of summer. 



ground. There is only wanting the 

 bright group Leo, and when, toward the 

 end of the month, this also enters our 

 evening sky the brilliant train of win- 

 ter constellations will be complete. 



All of these bright stars will remain 

 with us throughout the winter. It will 



