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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The Heavens in March. 



BY PROFESSOR ERIC DOOLlTTLE OE THE 

 UNIVERSITY OE PENNSYLVANIA. 



It is with the coming of March, our 

 first spring month, that the slow with- 

 drawal of the bright train of winter con- 

 stellations begins. Orion, Taurus and 

 Gemini are found on each succeeding 

 night a little lower in the west ; the beau- 



its great reddish star, Arcturus, is now 

 seen low in the northeast : above this the 

 Great Bear has reached almost its highest 

 position in the heavens, while between 

 and below these two groups there is 

 found the wonderfully beautiful and deli- 

 cate little maze of faint stars known as 

 Coma Berenices, or the Maiden's Hair. 

 The long Water snake, or Hydra, though 

 it now stretches from the southeastern 



SQUTH 



Figure 1. The Constellations at 9 P.M. March 1. (If facing south, hold the 

 upright. If facing east, hold East below. If facing west, hold West below. If 



man up „ 



facing north, hold the map inverted.) 



tiful Dog Stars have been carried well 

 past the meridian, and the golden arch 

 of the Milky Way, which for so many 

 months has passed through the very 

 zenith of the heavens, is now perceptibly 

 sinking westward in our evening sky. 

 The' large constellation, Bootes, with 



horizon almost to the very meridian, has 

 as yet dragged but half of its great length 

 from below the ground, and similarly but 

 one-half of Virgo, the first of the train 

 of summer groups, has so far appeared. 

 Yet the whole eastern heavens are far 

 less conspicuous than they were a few 



