480 GENERAL SCIENCE 



Little Dipper. A line drawn through the last two stars in the end of the 

 Big Dipper, from the bottom to the top, and extended will pass through 

 Polaris. Fig. 367. The star receives its name from the fact that the 

 earth's orbit points at it. The distance to the Pole Star is so great that 

 it requires about forty-six years for the light to come to us. 



Draco is represented by a figure of a long serpent stretching between 

 Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. 



Cassiopeia (kas'i-5-pe'ya) is represented as a queen seated on her 

 throne. On her right is her husband, King Cepheus (se'fus). 



Juno and Jupiter became very angry at Cassiopeia because of her boast that she 

 and her daughter Andromeda (an-dr6m'-e"-da) were more beautiful than any of the 

 goddesses, and placed the whole family in the sky. The queen's chair is composed of 

 five brilliant stars that form a W. Neptune was also very indignant over Cassiopeia's 

 boast, and sent a sea monster, Cetus, to destroy the coast of Ethiopia. King Cepheus 

 was forced to bind his daughter to a rock to be devoured by Cetus (se'-tus), but 

 Perseus (per'-sus) slew the terrible monster. Perseus will be seen holding a sword 

 in his right hand, while in his left hand is the head of Medusa. 



Perseus (the son of Jupiter) is supposed to have beheaded Medusa, 

 whose hair was hissing serpents, and whose features were so hideous as 

 to change into stone every living object upon which she fixed her gaze. 



Aries (a'rl-ez), the ram, bore a golden fleece. Mercury provided this ram for 

 Phrixus (frlx'-sus) and Helle to escape from Ino (1'no), their stepmother. When the 

 ram started for the heavens Helle became dizzy and fell off into the sea, afterwards 

 called Hellespont, now the Dardanelles. The other child Phrixus offered the ram in 

 sacrifice to Jupiter and gave the golden fleece to his protector. Jason tried to find 

 the golden fleece afterwards. 



Taurus is represented as a bull in the act of plunging at Orion. 



Aldebaran (al-deb'-a-ran) is the end star on the lower arm of the 

 V-shaped collection of stars called the Hyades. It is the red eye of the 

 angry bull, Taurus. This sun gives off 45 times as much light as our 

 sun, and the light requires 32 years to reach us. 



The Pleiades (ple'-ya-dees), another part of the constellation of 

 Taurus, were the daughters of Atlas. They prayed to the gods for pro- 

 tection from Orion the hunter. Jupiter placed them in the sky. Seven 

 stars may be seen in this group. There are in reality over three thou- 

 sand. The stars are surrounded by a misty appearance which makes 

 astronomers believe they form a great star system, evolving from the 



