10 



THE OPEN SKY 



with which they were familiar. And so we have the con- 

 stellations of the Great Bear, the Little Bear, the Great 

 Dog, the Little Dog, the Bull, the Lion, the Eagle, etc. 



The Greeks named other constellations after their heroes. 

 It is disappointing to see how little these star-groups resemble 

 the objects after which they are named, but we still retain 



the groupings and 

 their names for con- 

 venience in locating 

 individual stars. 

 The Great Bear and 

 the Little Bear- 

 or, as they are more 

 commonly called, 

 the Big Dipper and 

 the Little Dipper 

 are probably the 

 best known of all 

 the constellations 

 because they are al- 

 ways in view in the 

 northern heavens. 

 The two stars on 

 the edge of the Big 

 Dipper away from the handle are called the pointers 

 because they form a line that points toward the North 

 Star. (Figure 1.) 



Our Solar Family. We have seen that our mighty sun 

 and its family of planets form but a tiny fraction of crea- 

 tion, and that our little earth is comparatively only a speck 

 in the universe. Four of the eight planets that revolve 



FIGURE 1. CONSTELLATIONS IN THE 

 NORTHERN SKY 



A , Polaris, or North Star ; 1 , Big Dipper ; B and 

 C, pointers; 2, Little Dipper; 3, Dragon; 

 4, Cassiopeia's Chair ; 5, Cepheus. 



