64 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



faint groups, and often their outlines are 

 more perfect and there are more objects 

 of interest within their boundaries than 

 is the case with the few, very brihiant, 

 constellations, with which nearly every- 

 one is familiar. But to study these more 

 hidden beauties of the heavens the ob- 

 server must be sure to select a dark night, 

 when the moon is absent, and to go away 

 from the city or other artificial lights; 

 it is only then that the wonderful beauty 

 and infinite complexity of the heavens 

 will appear to him. 



The whole Summer Branch of the 

 Milky Way is now well up from the 



of their enormous distance from us, that 

 they appear merely as filmy patches of 

 light in a small telescope. 



The Comets Now in the Heavens. 



The first comet of the present year has 

 been approaching the earth and sun so- 

 rapidly that it will be just visible to the 

 eye throughout the present month. Un- 

 fortunately, however, its motion carries 

 it so verv far below the celestial equator 

 that during this, its time of greatest 

 brightness, it is wholly invisible to north- 

 ern observers. At the beginning of July 

 it is, in fact, very close to the South Pole 



NORTH 



FIGURE 1. The Constellations at 9 P. M., July 1. (If facing South hold the map upright. If 

 -actng east hold East below. Tf facing west hold West below. If facing north hold the map inverted. 



ground and this will repay many hours 

 of exploration with a small telescope. Its 

 wide southern portion is remarkably 

 filled with star clouds and streams, alter- 

 nating with vacant regions from which 

 the suns seem to have been swept away 

 to be heaped together elsewhere. This 

 whole region, and especially the lower 

 part of Ophiuchus is remarkable for the 

 great number of round, compact star 

 clusters which it contains ; but these are 

 nearly all so faint, probably on account 



of the heavens. From here it will move 

 rapidly northward, traversing the whole 

 length of the constellation Eridanus, and 

 finally crossing the celestial equator and 

 entering the borders of Taurus in 

 next January. It will be in reasonably 

 good position for northern observation 

 next November, but by that time it will 

 have diminished to the 9th magnitude, 

 and will continue to grow steadily 

 fainter. 



This comet is one of those, which,. 



