Recognizing the Stars [415 



Another brilliant star you will find in the southern sky of 

 summer is An tares, of rosy hue in contrast to Vega's bluish-white. 

 It is a part of the constellation Scorpio. These and many other 

 stars and constellations will become sky friends to look for, year 

 after year, once you have made their acquaintance. 



WINTER STARS ARE EXCEPTIONALLY BRILLIANT 



On winter evenings the stars are exceptionally brilliant- 

 brighter than any "sky pictures of summertime." In guessing at 

 the explanation, a youngster may give all the credit to the clear, 

 cold atmosphere. True, this clarity is a help, but it is a fact that 

 many of the most brilliant and striking star groups come into 

 view only in winter. 



Some Wintertime Favorites: It is in the winter that we see the 

 supergiant star, Betelgeuse (bet el gooz) . Early in the winter two 

 bright stars, Castor and Pollux, may be located by extending the 

 line of the Big Dipper's handle through its bowl. Then, through 

 the season we have an animal parade of star groups with the Little 

 Dog (Canis Minor) and Big Dog (Canis Major) , and Leo, the 

 Lion. Many of the stars that form these "animal" outlines are of 

 exceptional brilliance, including the Dog Star (Sirius) situated 

 in the Big Dog, and Regulus, which marks Leo's heart. 



You may be interested to know that Sirius is twenty-five times 

 as bright as our sun though most of the effect is lost on us as 

 Sirius is fifty trillion miles away from our earth 1 



If the clearness of the winter atmosphere does not account for 

 the variations in the brilliance of stars, what then is the explana- 

 tion? The distance of a star from the earth is part of the story; 

 but if all stars were equally distant from us they would still not 

 be equally bright. Some stars are larger than others, some have 

 a higher temperature than others. All these factors affect the 

 degree of brilliance associated with a given star. 



THE ZODIAC 



Millions of children undoubtedly met this ancient word 

 for the first time through a sinister television villain known as 



