CHAPTER XVIII 

 CAPELLA THE BEAUTIFUL 



IN the pearly glow suffusing the north horizon on 

 June evenings there is a beautiful star that shines in 

 lonely splendour. It is far below Polaris, almost 

 directly between it, indeed, and the skyline. Colourless 

 of aspect in the pale twilight, it shows the most brilliant 

 hues as the summer advances and it rises in the darken- 

 ing north-east heavens. 



Thus changed in appearance, and isolated as it is in 

 June, the casual observer of the starry firmament may 

 not at first glance recognise in it the chief of Auriga's 

 stars, Capella. But let him watch its progress night 

 after night until, say, at ten o'clock at the beginning 

 of September, and he will then find that the solitary 

 star of early June is associated with others, which, in 

 the aggregate, he at once discovers to be a very 

 familiar constellation. 



I have frequently made a note of Capella in the 

 summer-time. On the night of Sunday, June 25th, 

 1905, I wrote : 



A superb evening. Low in the northern sky, 

 which is strongly twilit, Capella coldly glitters. 

 The luminous reflection clearly indicates the sun's 

 place shifting round the north-west horizon. 



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