TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS 



123 



The September Stars. 



The whole sky is full of wonderful 

 objects of interest ; the Milky Way in 

 particular will well repay many even- 

 ings of exploration, and the observer 

 might also carefully examine the color- 

 ed stars, clusters and nebulas of An- 

 dromeda, Lyra and Hercules if he has 

 not alreadv done so. It is probable 



The constellation Aquarius is of very 

 great antiquity. The very earliest hu- 

 man records (which are those of Baby- 

 lonia) show the familiar Water Bearer 

 and his Urn ; this region of the sky was 

 known as the Sea, possibly because the 

 sun passed through it during the rainy 

 season. Some students ascribe to this 

 group the enormous antiquity of 15,000 



Figure 



The Constellation Aquarius. 



that it is such faint groups as Sagitta- 

 rius, Capricornus and Aquarius which 

 are less well known to many readers. 

 In the last-constellation the curious ''Y" 

 formed by the stars at A, Figure i, is 

 most apt to be familiar to the amateur 

 observer, though the wdiole constella- 

 tion contains objects of interest, many 

 of Avhich are visible in a telescope of 

 but two or three inches' aperture. 



The Y-shaped group of stars marks 

 the Urn held by the Water Bearer, 

 from which there ceaselessly flows a 

 great stream of water, outlined by the 

 stars A, B, C, D and E. The Southern 

 Fish, whose head is marked by Fomal- 

 haut. is represented, unnaturally 

 enough, as perpetually swallowing all 

 the water of this stream. 



years. In the false science of Astrol- 

 ogy, Aquarius was given great impor- 

 tance, its stars influencing the air and 

 seasons "in a wonderful, strange and 

 secret manner." For example, when 

 it was on the horizon with the sun the 

 weather was sure to be rainy. 



The possessor of a small telescope 

 will find that the stars G, H and K, 

 and also all of those marked L (Fig. 2) 

 are most interesting double stars. The 

 two suns at G are of a greenish color 

 and revolve about one another in the 

 course of about 700 years. At H there 

 are three stars, the closest together be- 

 ing yellow and blue, respectively, and 

 thus forming a fine contrast, as indeed 

 do many of the other pairs. It was in 

 front of one of the stars at H that the 



