FEBRr\RV 1, 1001. 



KNOWLEDGE. 



35 



tlieir heads. They are standing iu fact upon the Milky 

 Way. The four feet stiws ai-e Mu, Nu, Gamma, aud Xi. 

 Close by Mu is Eta, auothcr star in the foot of Castor, 

 and in the neighbourhood of those two stais is a splendid 

 cluster, 35 Messier, wliieh is just visible to the naked 

 eye. but which well repays examination with the opera- 

 glass. Castor is one of the most celebrated of double 

 stai-s, though of coui-se altogether beyond the gi-asp of 

 an opera-ghiis as the components ;u'e uot G" apart, but 

 the constellation as a whole is a fine one for examination 

 with the opera-glass, especially in the region of the 

 Milky Way. The contrast in coloiu' between the two 

 principal stai"s, Castor and Pollux, is noticeable enough 

 even with the naked eye, but becomes very striking 

 when the glass is turned upon them. Gemini forms the 

 home of several important metcoi'-radiants, especially 

 that of December 10 to 12. 



Between Leo and Ursa Major is a modern constel- 

 lation, called Leo Minor, framed by Hevelius out of 

 the unformed stars which he found in this region. Its 

 components none of them exceed the fourth rank, and 

 it is chiefly noticeable to the naked eye astronomer a.s 

 the home of a meteor radiant of the second rank. 



The Lynx, lying between Ursa Major and Cancer, is 



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 •* CEPHEUS 



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 • • 



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coins ""«<•, 



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llie Hiduigbt Sky for Loudon, I'Jul, ]<\bruaiy 5. 



an even fainter constellation than Leo Minor; its two 

 principal stai's Alpha and 38 make a visual i>air, very 

 similar to the three that have already been noted as 

 marking the plantigrade feet of Ui-sa Major, aud as 

 Prof. Young has suggested, they might well have been 

 taken to have made up the foui-th, though, had this 

 been so, our Bear would have been a '" high-stepper " of 

 most un-ursine agility. 



Underneath the three stais which make the handle 

 of the Plough, or tail of the Bear, is a bright stai-, 

 easily recognized from the comparative bareness of the 

 region in which it is placed, which is known as Cor 

 Caroli, " Charles' Heart," so called because Sir- C. 

 Scarborough declared that it shone with peculiar bright- 

 ness the night before Charles the Second made his entry 

 into London on his restoration. This name, however, 

 attaches only to the single star; the constellation like 

 Lvnx and Loo Minor, being one of those which we owe 



to the ingenuity of Hevelius, who named it Canes 

 Venatici, the " hiuiting dogs." Cor Caroli is a beauti- 

 ful double stai", the components of which ai-e about 

 20" apai'b. 



Below Canes Venatici, and immediately to the east 

 of the rectangle of Leo, is a constellation which, though 

 ancient, is by no means one of the original ones. Though 

 it possesses no bright stars, yet on a clear night tho 

 region will attract the attention of the sharp-sighted 

 observer, for delicate points and films of light are 

 crowded in it. Sei-viss writes of it: — 



" You will perceive a curious twinkling as if gossamer 

 spangled with dcwdrops were entangled there. One 

 might think the old woman of the nursery rhyme, who 

 went to sweep the cobwebs out of tho sky, had skipped 

 this corner, or else that its delicate beauty had preserved 

 it even from her housewifely instincts." 



The story of its naming is that Berenice, the Queen 

 and sister of Ptolemy Euei-getcs, vowed her beautiful 

 hair to Aphrodite, should her consort return safely 

 from an expedition on which he had set out. The 

 consecrated tress was, however, stolen from tho temple 

 soon after its dedication, and the consequences might 

 have been very serious had uot the royal astronomer of 

 Alexandria, Conon, risen to the occasion, by declaring 

 that Aphrodite had caught the tress up to heaven, in 

 proof whereof he pointed out the constellation to the 

 king and queen. Probably, however, the stars iu this 

 region had already a half-recognised position as forni;- 

 ing a sepai'ate constellation, and the quick wit of the 

 astronomer but confirmed a brevet rank. 



CONSTELLATION-FIGURES 

 COIN-TYPES. 



AS GREEK 



By KoBEET Beown, June., f.s.a. 



That nearly the whole of our ancient coustellatiou-fignres 

 are to be found as types on coins will be admitted by 

 anyone who is familiar with the subject. But of course 

 the question for consideration is. Do they so appear ae 

 constellation-figures ? A numismatic Ram has no neces- 

 sary conneotiou with the zodiacal A ries. We should 

 require very strong- evidence to show that a flaming Altar 

 contained a reference to any constellatioual Ara, and so 

 on. Here, as elsewhere, evei'ything is a matter of evi- 

 dence ; nothing must be assumed, everything is possible. 

 The next stej^ to be noted in the enquiry is that various 

 constellation-tigures, e.g., the Signs of tho Zodiac, have 

 undoubtedly a[>peared, as such, on coins. The twelve 

 Signs are to be found on coins of the Roman Enipiiv, 

 as on coins of the Emperor Jahrmgir,'^* the Cajtriconi, as 

 the fortunate Sign of Augustus, being specially promiiicnl. 

 Then, turning to the earlier Greek coins, we find that 

 all over Hellas, from Italy to Pontus, constellation-figures 

 appear as coin-types in astonishing numbers aud with 

 the greatest persistency. Do they, then, here appear 

 ill some cases as constellations ? So far, this would 

 seem to be by no means improbable. But several general 

 theories of the origin of coin-types, exclusive of any 

 astronomical connection, have been suggested. Thus, it is 

 said that man put on his coins what he saw around him. 

 He saw a lion, a lion tearing an ox, etc., and stamped 

 representations of these ou his coinage. Yes, but he did 

 not see a gryphon, or a Pegasus, or a naked man with a 

 club aud liou-gkiu fighting against a many-headed snake 

 and a crab. So wo see that this theory will not enable us 

 to explain either constellation-figures or coin-types as a 



' Tide E. AV. Jlaunder, The Zodiacal Cams of the Emperor 

 Jahdniiir Knowledge, July 1, 1890). 



