TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS 



219 



The beginning- of the eclipse will 

 first be seen from the point A, Figure 

 4 ; the greatest eclipse will be seen from 

 B, and the last view of it will be had 

 from the point C. It is very remark- 

 able that the course of this eclipse over 

 the earth is thus from east to west, in- 

 stead of from west to east, as is almost 

 invariably the case. As the date of its 

 occurrence is not far from that of the 

 longest day in the southern hemisphere, 

 it also follows that there are regions 

 within the Antarctic Circle from which 

 it may be viewed as an eclipse of the 

 midnight sun. 



Scientific Work for Leisure Hours that 

 Any One Can Do. 



BY WILLIAM TYLER OLCOTT, NORWICH, 

 CONNECTICUT. 



If some great man, noted as a scienti- 

 fic investigator, should come to you and 

 say, "How would you like to work in 

 my laboratory, and assist me in the line 

 of research work in which I am engag- 

 ed?" and you had a little spare time 

 (and most of us have some) would you 

 not jump at such a chance? You would 

 perhaps feel dififident and hardly quali- 

 fied to attempt such work realizing 

 your mental limitations, but when you 

 were assured that any one blessed with 

 a certain amount of patience and per- 

 severance could be of service, you 

 would, I feel sure, accept such an of¥er. 



This is the position, I am inclined to 

 think, in which many are placed — they 

 would like nothing better than to em- 

 plov their leisure time to promote sci- 

 entific knowledge, but they feel hope- 

 lessly unqualified to do such work; 

 they believe that one must have a 

 knowledge of mathematics or a 

 knowledge of chemistry or physics, or 

 of higher education generally, to en- 

 gage in any scientific research work, 

 and this is of course in great part true. 

 However, there is one line of scientific 

 research in which any one possessed 

 of normally keen eyesight, and only 

 average intelligence, can engage, 

 and which many are now taking up to 

 employ to good advantage their leis- 

 ure time. 



1 refer to a certain phase of astronom- 

 ical research work. Now do not let 

 this allusion to astronomy discourage 

 you with the idea that the work is ab- 

 struse and beyond your mental capabil- 



ities. Nothing is farther from the 

 truth, for I reiterate that any one can 

 do this work, and it does not call for 

 even a knowledge of artithmetic. It 

 is purely observational, and surely any 

 one can use their eyes if they are told 

 what to do with them. 



The A B C of the work which must 

 first be mastered is a knowledge of the 

 constellations, those time-honored fig- 

 ures wrought in stars on the night 

 skies. All you need for this work is a 

 simple guide to the stars or a star atlas, 

 to be had at a nominal cost. 



Only a short time ago picture puz- 

 zles were much in vogue and thous- 

 ands of peonle spent hours in matching 

 little bits of wood to form a picture. It 

 alwavs seemed to me that thev reallv 

 missed the greatest puzzle picture of 

 all. and if only they had turned their 

 eves to the heavens they would have 

 beheld in the star arrav the grandest 

 nuzzle ever presented to mankind. It 

 is so easy to make the pieces fit. for 

 vou have the kev in the guide before 

 vou. and the search for the pictures is 

 fascinating and intellectuallv profit- 

 able. There are only about fifty con- 

 stelkitions to be seen in these latitudes 

 (the latitude of Boston and New York) 

 and if you had twenty-four consecutive 

 hours of darkness you could see them 

 all. Only half that number can be seen 

 at any one time, so your task is not 

 great or in any way exacting. Many 

 of the constellations have only a few 

 bright stars in them which are easily 

 identified ; for example, Aries, the 

 Ram. and Triangulum, the Triangle, 

 have only three bright stars in each, 

 which renders their identification an 

 extremely simple matter. 



It is not a case of trying to see the 

 many quaint forms the ancients 

 thought they saw in the heavens — this 

 is too great a tax on any one's imagina- 

 tion, — but a matter of tracing out a 

 number of geometrical figures formed 

 by joining with imaginary lines the 

 bright stars. By this method you have 

 only to discover an obtuse-angled tri- 

 angle formed of bright stars halfway 

 up the eastern sky, say at 9 :oo p. m., 

 November ist, and you have identified 

 the constellation Aries. Above it you 

 will see clearly outlined an isosceles 

 triangle of stars lying on its side, and 

 vou have identified the constellation 



