MILKY WAY. 147 



tion of the southern heavens is the pleasing and richly-star- 

 red region of our northern hemisphere in Aquila and Cyg- 

 nus, where the Milky Way branches off in different direc- 

 tions. While the Milky Way is the narrowest under the 

 foot of the Cross, the region of minimum brightness (where 

 there is the greatest paucity of stars in the Galactic zone) is 

 in the naighborhood of Monoceros and Perseus. 



The magnificent effulgence of the Milky Way in the south- 

 ern hemisphere is still further increased by the circumstance 

 that between the star r\ Argus, which has become so cele- 

 brated in consequence of its variability, and a Crucis, undei 

 the parallels of 59 and 60 south lat, it is intersected at 

 an angle of 20 by the remarkable zone of very large and 

 probably very proximate stars, to which belong the constella- 

 tions Orion, Canis Major, Scorpio, Centaurus, and the South- 

 ern Cross. The direction of this remarkable zone is indi- 

 cated by a great circle passing through e Orionis and the 

 foot of the Cross. The picturesque effect of the Milky Way, 

 if I may use the expression, is increased in both hemispheres 

 by its various ramifications. It remains undivided for about 

 two fifths of its length. According to Sir John Herschel's 

 observations, the branches separate in the great bifurcation 

 at a Centauri,* and not at )3 Cent., as given in our maps of 

 the stars, or, as was asserted by Ptolemy,t in the constella- 

 tion of the Altar ; they reunite again in Cygnus. 



In order to obtain a general insight into the whole course 

 and direction of the Milky Way with its subdivisions, we 

 will briefly consider its parts, following the order of their 

 Right Ascension. Passing through y and e Cassiopeiae, the 

 Milky Way sends forth toward e Persei a southern branch, 

 which loses itself in the direction of the Pleiades and Hyades. 

 The main stream, which is here very faint, passes on through 

 Auriga, over the three remarkable stars e, , rj, the Hsedi of 

 that constellation, preceding Capell a, between the feet of Gem- 

 ini and the horns of the Bull (where it intersects the eclip- 



aware of its having risen above the horizon, though he should not be at 

 the time looking at the heavens, by the increase of general illumination 

 of the atmosphere, resembling the effect of the young moon." (See 

 Piazzi Smyth, On the Orbit of a Centauri, in the Transact, of the Royal 

 Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. xvi., p. 445.) 



* Outlines, $ 789. 791 ; Observations at the Cape, $ 325. 



t Almagest, lib. viii., cap. 2 (t. ii., p. 84, 90, Halma). Ptolemy's de- 

 scription is admirable in some parts, especially when compared with 

 Aristotle's treatment of the subject of the Milky Way, in Meteor (lib 

 i., p. 29, 34, according to Ideler's edition). 



