CHAPTER FIVE 



STARS NEAR THE NORTH POLE OF THE HEAVENS 



I'm constant as the Northern Star, 

 Of whose true-fixed and vesting quality 

 There is no fellow in the firmament. 



SHAKESPEARE 



THE stars in some parts of the heavens are visible 

 only at certain seasons of the year and certain hours of 

 the night, but the constellations treated in this chapter 

 remain above the horizon at all times. On account of 

 the rotation of the earth they change their altitudes 

 and directions, and they appear in different positions at 

 different times of the year ; but the stars near the north 

 pole of the heavens will be. visible on any clear night. 

 Therefore he who becomes acquainted with them, as 

 long as he remains in the northern hemisphere will see 

 familiar faces wherever he goes. The people about him 

 may all seem strange, or he may be quite alone, either 

 in the wilderness or in a great city ; yet he need not feel 

 lonely, for his old-time friends among the stars will 

 greet him night by night. 



The Great Dipper and the Great Bear. You have 

 often seen the Great Dipper. It is always visible on a 

 clear night from any part of the northern hemisphere 

 except near the equator. It forms a part of Ursa Major, 

 the Great Bear; but the Bear is not so easy to find as 

 the Dipper is, and a person has to use his imagination 

 to see it. The handle of the Dipper forms the tail of 

 the Bear a very long tail which, according to mythol- 

 ogy, Jupiter stretched in lifting the huge beast up into 

 the heavens. The four stars forming the bowl of the 

 Dipper are in the hind quarters of the Bear. The two 



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