398 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The Heavens in May. 



BY PROFESSOR ERIC DOOLlTTLE OE THE 

 UNIVERSITY OE PENNSYLVANIA. 



The most conspicuous of our south- 

 ern constellations now in the heavens 

 is the beautiful Leo, now only a little 

 way past the meridian and very high 

 up in the south. The reader will have 

 no difficulty in tracing out this beauti- 

 ful star group, especially as no other 



stars form an outline even faintly sug- 

 gesting the object for which they are 

 named. 



***** 



The May Stars. 



At the beginning of the month the 

 planet Mars is just without the blade 

 of the Sickle, but as the days go by this 

 deeply reddish planet may easily be 

 seen to be quite rapidly moving east- 



^OUTH 



FiRure 1. The Constellations at 9 P. M.. May 1. (H facing south hold the map 

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

 north hold the map inverted). 



conspicuous stars are near it. Its first 

 six stars form a very perfect outline 

 of a Sickle ; this portion forms the head 

 and forepart of the Lion, the end of 

 the tail being at A, Figure i. This is 

 one of the few constellations whose 



ward, so that by May 20 it apparently 

 forms an additional star to even more 

 clearly mark out the handle, and on 

 May 24 it will pass north of the bright 

 star Regulus, at B. The two bright 

 objects will then form an interesting 



