TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS 



279 



of the Hare and the Dove, which lie 

 just below Orion. He may also recog- 

 nize the very upper stars of the large 

 southern constellation Argo Navis, a 

 wonderful collection of suns among 

 which is the giant sun Canopus, a star 

 which appears to us but little fainter 

 than Sirius, although it is at least 

 twelve times as far away. It is indeed 

 the second brightest star in the sky 

 (Sirius being the first) but unfortu- 

 nately it, as well as nearly the whole of 

 Argo. is hidden from us, never rising 

 above our southern horizon. 



Above Argo and below Sirius is the 

 Unicorn, while bordering the Milky- 

 Way in the zenith we find the Giraffe. 

 The Lynx and the lesser Lion, the lat- 

 ter lying between Ursa Major and the 

 Greater Lion, and the former between 

 the Bear and the Cancer, are more 

 easily traced out. while below the 

 Great Dipper (at H and G, Fig. 1) are 

 the Hunting Dogs and the Maiden's 

 Hair, the last the most beautiful little 

 group of all, especially when viewed on 

 a clear, moonless night with a pair of 

 opera glasses. 



The reader will find an inexpensive 

 star atlas of the greatest assistance to 



jects which have come down to us from 

 a remote antiquity and about whose 

 origin (when it can be ascertained) 

 there is often so much of interest. 

 There is a large held of work even for 

 naked eye study, enough to occupy the 

 beginner for many evenings and indeed 

 for many whole nights. But the small- 

 est telescope will enormously widen 

 the field of work. With such an instru- 

 ment he will be surprised to find how 

 much is revealed to him when he turns 

 to star groups such as the Pleiades (at 

 L) or the Hyades (at C), while the 

 true character of such objects as the 

 beautiful cluster in Perseus (at M) and 

 Praesepe (at D), which are only just 

 visible to the naked eye, can only be 

 revealed by the use of a small tele- 

 scope. A great number of interesting 

 objects will be found on the charts of 

 the atlas ; study and exploration of the 

 heavens in this way may be found an 

 almost inexhaustible source of interest. 



The Planets in February. 



Mercury is in the morning sky 

 throughout the month, but too near the 

 sun's rays to be well observed. Though 

 it will pass to the east of the sun on 



1878 



Figure 2. Views of the planet Jupiter. The second shows the appearance of the Great Red Spot in 



him in becoming familiar with these March 12, it will not attain its greatest 



fainter groups. The interest of his distance away in the evening sky until 



study will be much increased if he se- the first week in April, 

 lects an atlas on which are drawn those The very brilliant Venus, which for 



figures of the animals and other ob- so manv months has been so very con- 



