170 Star anfr Meatber (Bosstp 



SUMMER SHOOTING-STARS 



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With the incoming of August the sky-student sets a 

 watch for certain famous shooting-stars. To the 

 casual observer they are known as the August 

 meteors ; to science they are the Perseids. Why the 

 Perseids ? Simply because they appear to radiate 

 from that ancient constellation Perseus, just as the 

 November meteors are called the Leonids by reason 

 of their apparent emergence from the constellation 

 Leo, celebrated for its sickle-shaped group of bright 

 stars. 



And Perseus ? Where shall one look for it in the 

 delightful evenings of early August ? Well, everyone 

 must know the Pole Star, and surely everyone must 

 also be able to locate the Great Bear. Not, however, 

 that Perseus is in the very near vicinity of either, but 

 rather that, to employ them as guides, the con- 

 stellation is on the opposite side of the Pole to the 

 Great Bear, and at about the same height above the 

 north horizon. The Bear, for example, between ten 

 and eleven o'clock, is at the lower left-hand segment 

 of the circle which it describes round the Pole, whilst 

 Perseus is at the lower right-hand segment. Its 

 scimitar-shaped group of stars ought to be readily 

 recognised as readily, indeed, as the large capital 

 " W " formed by Cassiopeia above. It is a fascinating 

 quarter of the heavens this in which Perseus and 

 Cassiopeia are placed. 



A feature of these Perseids is that they are so long- 



