86 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[April 1, 1901. 



constellatioD, liaving no stars so bright as the second 

 maguitude, but it can be pretty easily traced out. Taking 

 Beta and tlie somewhat fainter star Gamma, just below it, 

 as the root, the stars map out the calix of a gigantic lily ; 

 Gamma, Beta, Zeta, Eta, Sigma and Tau, six stars in a 

 beautiful curve, sweeping round the little constellation of 

 the Crown, forming the western outline of the flower. 

 Hercules is the name now uuiversallv ascribed to this 



the current outlines of the constellations, regarded as 

 making the true Dragon's Head. 



The thu-d curve of the great lily of Hercules extends 

 from Gamma and Beta, through a well marked line 

 of stars, Delta, Lambda, Mu, and Nu, to the little 

 constellation of the Lvre, the principal star of which 

 is the great blue brilliant Vega, the worthy rival of 

 Arcturus and Capella, if not superior to either. The 



__^xyn 



XVII 



XVI XV XIV 



DRACO 



XIII 









I '• 



/ 



•- • \ • 



•44 



{ ^ 24 



CANES 



XI 



Ip URSA MAJOR 



r -x 



47 



•c ' CORONA > •(■ 



•&\ 



B00TE5 



•S 

 HERCULES 



• - - - I "5 w 



COMA 



., •— f 1 



"IT •." 1 . 



7 12 s 

 •2, -7 1 '.'■- 



•v 



CRATER 



star Map Xo. -1 ; The Region of Bootes and Hercules 



constellation, but the name was foisted upon it in com- 

 paratively recent times Aratus sings : — 

 ■' A labouring man next rises to our sigbt, 

 But wliat Ills task or wlio this honoured wight 

 X"o poet tells. Upon his knee he bends, 

 And hence bis name, Engonasiu, descends. 

 He lifts his suppliant arms and dares to rest 

 His right foot on the scaly dragon's crest." 



The first suggestion that this Kneeler was the great 

 national Hellenic deity, seems to have been due to Panyasis, 

 the uncle of the great historian, Herodotus, Li a poem 

 "n the sul-iject of the great national hero, in order to do 

 h:m the greater honour he sought to identify him with 

 the unnamed wrestler of the constellation. The fact that 

 desj)ite this effort the identification had entirely failed of 

 adoption 200 years later, is as near positive proof as we 

 can get, not merely that it was uot known whom the 

 constellation represented, but that it was kuowu that it 

 did not represent Hercules. 



The second curve of Hercules runs through the stars 

 Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, and Pi and Iota ; Iota making a 

 diamond with the three stars in the Head of the Dragon, 

 Beta, Gammi and Xi, This diamond. Proctor, in his 

 ingenious Vmt usuilly quite unauthonsel alterations of 



brightness and the intensely blue light with which it 

 shines render Vega a very easy object to pick up, but if 

 an alignment is required, a straight line from Arcturus 

 through Alphecca to Zeta Hercules leads almost straight 

 to it, Zeta being halfway. 

 " There is the Shell but small. And this. whUst yet 



Encradled. Hermes pierced and called it Lvre ; 



Fronting the Unknown Form" (i.e., the Kneeler) " he set it down 



When brought to Heaven." 



The principal stars of the constellation are very easy to 

 recognise. Vega forms one of the points of a little equi- 

 lateral triangle, the other two angles of which are occupied 

 by Epsilon and Beta. Epsilon is to very keen sight a 

 naked-eye double; the opera-glass separates the tivo stars 

 at once, and no great telescopic power is required to show 

 each star as itself a neat little pair, Zeta marks also the 

 upper angle of a little rhomboid, of which Beta, Gramma, 

 and Delta mark the other angles. Each of these stars is 

 an easy double for the opera-glass ; Nu and Lambda being 

 companions to B.Ha and Gamma respectively. Beta, is 

 one of the most interesting of short period variables ; its 

 period being two hours short of thirteen days, in which 

 time it passes through two maxima and two minima, the 

 minima being, however, of unequal brightness ; but as even 



