176 



Trees, Stars, and Birds 



you could make out 

 among the stars would 

 probably be just as 

 reasonable as the names 

 which were applied by 

 the ancients. But the 

 names which were long 

 ago given to groups of 

 stars have become fixed 

 by use, although in 

 many cases it is not 

 easy to see the forms 

 of birds, reptiles, quad- 

 rupeds, mythological 

 heroes or heroines, and 

 various objects which 

 the peoples of antiquity 

 imagined were among the stars. 



Names of stars. Most of the bright stars, as well 

 as the constellations, were given names before the begin- 

 ning of the Christian era, and these names are still 

 used. The brightest star in each constellation is called 

 also by another name, Alpha, the first letter of the Greek 

 alphabet. The next in brightness is Beta, the second 

 letter ; the next Gamma, the third letter ; and so on 

 through the Greek alphabet of twenty-four letters. 

 After that the Roman alphabet is used. Astronomers 

 also make use of star catalogs, which give the exact 

 locations of hundreds of thousands of stars. They refer 

 to a star by the name of the catalog containing it and 

 its number in that catalog. 



FIG. 115. The constellation of Orion 

 (see page 204). 



