12 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Jaxuaby 1, 1901. 



References. 



N.G.C. 2245-47. Index Catalogue No. 446-7. 



The photograph was taken with the 20-inch reflector 

 on March 1st, 1900, between sidereal time 6h. 28m., 

 and 9h. 15m., with an exposure of the plate during two 

 hours and forty-seven minutes. The star marked witli 

 two dots (,.) 18 y IV. o, N.G.C. No. 2245, and it is 

 surrounded by faint nebulosity. The st.ar marked with 

 three dots is described as a nebulous .star ; and so also 

 is the bright star, at a. distance from it on the north 

 precedinrj side, described as a nebulous star of lOtli 

 magnitude (Index Catalogue No. 446), but it is shown 

 on the negative to be surrounded by extensive nebulosity 

 with an axea void of stai-s extending towards the south 

 and soiith fvUowiny directions. The star marked with 

 one dot is apparently involved in the large nebula near 

 the centre of the photograph, and on the preceding side 

 of the star is a dark tortuous rift similar in character to 

 tint shi.iwn on the photn^-rapli of IjJ JV. 41 !^aL;ittarii 

 and on others. The rifts j^i'ove that the nebuloe are 

 not globular masses, but are like clouds with relatively 

 small depths, and that we can see through them into 

 the darkness of space beyond. There are also very 

 noticeable areas void of stars in the region surrounding 

 the nebulfe here described ; and the lines and curves 

 of stars are numerous in this region. 



CONSTELLATION STUDIES. 



By E. Walter Maunder, f.r.a.s. 



I.— THE NORTH CIRCUMPOLAR STARS. 



The workman is nothing without his tools. For the 

 asti-onomer in general these are his telescopes ; his 

 transit circle ; his equatorials. But the fathers of the 

 science had none of these, and they supplied the want 

 by making themselves thoroughly acquainted with the 

 groupings of the stars. The naked-eye astronomer of 

 to-day is compelled to follow their example. The stars 

 are his reference points and he must know them 

 thoroughly ; he cannot know them too well, and the 

 more complete and exact his acquaintance with them, 

 the better he is equipped for his work. It is by the stars 

 that he marks the beginning and ending of a meteor's 

 flight; by the stars he lays down the windings and 

 channels of the Milky Way, or the soft contours of the 

 Zodiacal Light. I have felt it, thefefore, necessary to 

 follow my little note^ on the various departments of 

 " Astronomy Without a Telescope ' by a series of 

 " Constellation Studies "; an introduction of the student, 

 I would hope, to that fuller, more intimate acquaintance 

 with the stellar groujsings which continued and careful 

 star-study will soon give to him. 



When, where, or why, the constellations were designed 

 and their names given them, are questions which have 

 received much attention but which remain without a 

 complete solution. The sources from which light can 

 come on tlicse questions may be divided under four chief 

 heads. First, Folk-lore, or oral tradition. This is a 

 rapidly-vanishing factor, and, on that account, it is the 

 more to be desired that those who are brought in contact 

 with the isolated peoples in the corners of the earth 

 should lose no opportunity of trying to find out what 

 these have noticed about the stars, what special grouj)s 

 they recognise, what names they have given them, and 

 what traditions they have presei-vcd about them. Next, 

 what may bo called documentary evidence; allusions 



in classical writers, and the astronomical records of 

 India and China. Thirdly, what we may term — to use 

 a populai' and convenient, though somewhat inappi'O- 

 priate expreission — the " Assyriological ' source; the 

 evidence of monuments and tablets recently discovered 

 in the valley of the Euphrates. . This source promises 

 to be the most fruitful and significant, reaching back 

 into a great antiquity, though it has come into our 

 hands but lately. Lastly, there is the evidence of the 

 constellation groups themselves. This internal evidence 

 is necessarily very limited in its character, yet so far 

 as it goes, it is the most important and unmistakable 

 of all; and is especially valuable when it can be applied 

 as a check to assertions or theories based upon external 

 records of either of the three foregoing categories. To 

 follow up any of these researches is also astronomy — 

 " astronomy without a telescope " — although it is not 

 the astronomy of observation. But the material already 

 gathered under these various heads is far toO' wide to 

 be at all adequately dealt with in the present series of 

 papers. All that can be done will be to give occasional 

 brief notes as to the names of star groups and of indi- 

 vidual stars with their most probable meanings. 



The most important stai's for the student to begin 

 with are those within the circle of " perpetual appari- 

 tion," the circumjjolar stars — those, that is to say, that 

 are within 50° of the north pole of the heavens. A 

 description of these was given in the nmnber of Know- 

 ledge for April, 1900, to which I would make the 

 following additions. 



The constellations that immediately surround the 

 North Pole are six in number, five of them ancient; 

 the sixth, Camelopardus, or the Giraffe, was added by 

 Hevelius about 1690. 



There is no place for hesitation as to which of these 

 constellations we should begin with. 



" He would scan the figured skies, 

 Its brightest gems to tell, 

 Must first direct his mind's eje north. 

 And learn the Bear's stars well " ; 



the seven stars so well known to our own peasantry 

 as the " Plough'" or " Charles' Wain." Wherever men 

 have taken any notice of the stars at all, these seven 

 have been recognised as a natural groxip, and in earlier 

 ages, being then much nearer to the Pole than now, 

 they were amongst the stars always visible, not only to 

 dwellers in such northern latitudes as our own, but as 

 far south as the tropic of Cancer. It is easy to see how 

 the names of " Plough ' or " Wagon " for these seven 

 stars have arisen ; their natural configuration has 

 suggested them. The three stars below, as we look at 

 the constellation at midnight at this season of the year, 

 suggest just the kind of curve of a plough handle ; and 

 the four above in a rough rectangle, present the plough- 

 share. Or the four stars above may be considered the 

 four wheels of the rude wagon of which the three below 

 represent the heads of the three horses. " Chariot " or 

 " Wagon " the seven stars have been not only in 

 Northern Europe in our own time but in ancient Greece, 

 and still more ancient Babylonia. Aratus writes of the 

 Pole; — 



" Two lirars 

 Called Wains moved rjund it either in lie place." 



And Homer says that on the shield of Achilles were 



" All those stars with which the brows of ample lieaTcn are crowned, 

 Orion all the Pleiades, and ihose seven Atlas got — 

 The close-beamed Hy^ides, the Bear surnamed the Chariot." 



But how the constellation got the name of the Bear is 

 far harder to explain. The Sanskrit name " Riksha " 



