542 



SCIENTIFIC RECREATIONS. 



The Lesser Bear is not so important as his elder brother as regards 

 size, but he is very useful to astronomers. He resembles the Great Bear in 

 appearance, but is smaller, and the positions of the stars are inverted. In 

 the cut on page 555 (fig. 629) you see the little bear swinging round the 

 polar star, which is at the tip of the Lesser Bear's tail, so any one will be 

 enabled to find him if they look for the polar star, and then count the three 

 stars away from it, and the four in the body. The Great Bear's tail points 

 in the other direction. This movement of the earth's axis by displacing the 

 equinoctial points, alters the " declination " and " right ascension " of the stars 

 (compare page 473). So Polaris is gradually approaching the actual polar 



'Fig. 608. The Great Bear. 



point. In about 200 years he will have got as close as he can, and will 

 then begin to recede from it, and in about 12,500 years after he will reach 

 his most distant point. 



POLARIS, the Pole Star, was called "Cynosure" by the ancients, and 

 thus we can understand the quotation, "Cynosure of neighbouring eyes," 

 when a person or object is very attractive. The pole star was the point to 

 which all looked. There are some other very important stars in these 

 constellation^-'' For instance, in 



Perseus we have Algenib and Algol, of second magnitude. 



Auriga we have Capella, of the first magnitude. 



Bootes we have Arcturus, of the first magnitude. 



Lyra we have Vega, a very large and bright star. 



Aquilla, Altair, also a very beautiful star. 



In Cygnus there is Denet, of the first magnitude. 



These stars are also designated by the Greek letters a, lyrae, or the 



