THE STARRY HEAVENS FOR JUNE 



-'3 



By Professor Eric Doolittle of the University of rennsvlvaiiia 



THE beautiful planet. Saturn, which 

 has been shining" so brightly in the 

 heavens for so long- a time, will this 

 month leave the evening sky. For many 

 months this has been the only bright 

 world to be seen in the evening heavens 

 so that its withdrawal would have left 

 our evening skies planet-less were it not 

 that the bright and ever interesting little 

 ]\Iercurv comes iust at this time into it? 



only a short distance beyond the borders 

 of our evening map, and it will require 

 Imt a few weeks more before the steady 

 transformation of the celestial sphere will 

 bring- this beautiful golden world, with 

 its fo::r bright moons, into our evenino- 

 sky. 



THE JUNE STARS. 



The bright groups, Orion, Taurus, 

 Gemini and Auriga, have now almost en- 



Figure 1. The Heavens at 9 P. M., June 1. (H facing south hold the map upright. If facing east 

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



best position for observation of the entire 

 year. 



This swiftly moving little world will, 

 however, pay us but a short visit : after 

 the middle of June it will again be lost in 

 the sun's rays, and then no bright planet 

 will be seen among the evening constella- 

 tions. But the great planet Jupiter is now 



tirely disappeared, and Leo. the last of 

 the train of winter constellations, is sink- 

 ing in the west. But the two most bril- 

 liant summer stars, Arcturus and Spica, 

 which present so interesting a contrast in 

 color, are near the meridian in the south ; 

 the striking Scorpio, the most beautiful 

 of all the summer groups, has completely 



