376 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CHAPTEKS ON THE STARS. 



By Professor SIMON NEWCOMB, U. S. N. 



Constellations and Star Names. 



IN ancient times the practice was adopted of imagining the figures 

 of heroes and animals to be so outlined in the heavens as to 

 include in each figure a large group of the brighter stars. In a few 

 cases some vague resemblance may be traced between the configura- 

 tions of the stars and the features of the object they are supposed 

 to represent; in general, however, the arrangement seems quite arbi- 

 trary. One animal or man could be fitted in as well as another. There 

 is no historic record or trace as to the time when the constellations 

 were mapped out, or of the process by which the outlines were traced. 

 The names of heroes, such as Perseus, Cepheus, Hercules, etc., inter- 

 mingled with the names of goddesses, show that the constellations 

 were probably mapped out during the heroic age. No maps are extant 

 showing exactly how each figure was placed in the constellation; but 

 in the catalogue of stars given by Ptolemy in his 'Almagest,' the posi- 

 tions of particular stars on the supposed body of the hero, goddess or 

 animal are designated with such precision as he had at command, 

 in some fairly precise position of the figure. For example, Aldebaran 

 is said to have formed the eye of the Bull. Two other stars marked 

 the right and left shoulders of Orion, and a small cluster marked the 

 position of his head. A row of three stars in a horizontal line showed 

 his belt, three stars in a vertical line below them his sword. In this 

 way the position of the figure can be reproduced with a fair degree 

 of certainty. 



In the well-known constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear, famil- 

 iarly known as the Dipper, three stars form the tail of the animal, 

 and four others a part of his body. This formation is not unnatural, 

 yet the figure of a dipper fits the stars much better than that of a bear. 

 In Cassiopeia, which is on the opposite side of the pole from the Dipper, 

 the brighter stars may easily be imagined to form a chair in which a 

 lady may be seated without further difficulty. As a general rule, how- 

 ever, the resemblances of the stars to the figure are so vague that the 

 latter might be interchanged to any extent without detracting from 

 their appropriateness. 



In any case, it was impossible so to arrange the figures that they 

 should cover the entire heavens; blank spaces were inevitably left in 



