590 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



any other time in one quarter of the heavens. For besides the splendid equal- 

 sided triangle formed by Procyon, Betelgeux, and Sirius, they see Aldebaran^ 

 Rigel, and Canopus, the last-named surpassing every star in the heavens except 

 Sirius alone. 



Next month, the great ship Argo will have come better into view; and I de- 

 fer till then my account of this fine constellation. 



The eastern and western maps for this month, when compared with those for 

 January, show how the stars, observed at any given hour month after month, 

 cliange in position just as though they were watched hour after hour on the same 

 ni^ht. Thus in the January eastern map the Lion is seen low down, and the ar- 

 rows scattered over the map, which (except the arrow on the ecliptic) point the 

 way the stars are apparently moving, show that the Lion is passing upward and 

 slightly toward the right, or to just such a position as the constellation has in the 

 eastern map for this month. In fact, if the stars had been observed in January 

 two hours after the time when the Lion was placed as shown in the January map, 

 it would have been found that the Lion had reached the exact position occupied 

 by the constellation in our present map. Two hours' motion on any given night 

 produces the same change of position as one month's motion for stars seen at 

 any given hour. This remark applies to all stars; and the young student will do 

 well to compare together the two eastern maps and the two western maps (for 

 January and February), following up the work by noting month after month how 

 the star groups rise up from out of the eastern horizon, and pass down toward the 

 western. Also he will find it interesting to notice how six months hence the stars 

 which are now rising at any given hour in the east will be found at the same 

 hour setting in the west ; while those which at any hour are now setting in the west 

 will be found six months hence rising in the east. What is true of the present 

 time, and six months from the present time, is true of any part of the year, and 

 six months before or after that time. 



In the east we see that at the hours named under the map (and of course at 

 intermediate hours on the intermediate dates) the constellation Auriga has passed 

 overhead, leaving only two stars visible in the space covered by the map, and 

 even those two {Beta and Theta) have passed over to the western side of the 

 north and south line overhead. The Lion is now the chief constellation of the 

 east; and the student will do well lo study it there, for this group is not so well 

 seen at any other part of the year. When in the south, indeed, it is better placed 

 for the astronomer, who cannot have the stars too high above the horizon. But 

 the general student of the skies can note the shape of star gioups more conven- 

 iently when they are at a moderate elevation. 



I think few can recognize in the constellation Leo, as now figured, the shape 

 of a lion. The stars Mu, Epsilon, and Lambda now mark the place of the lion's 

 head, while his tail ends at the star Beta, and his forepaws reach from Ft to Omi- 

 cron. It requires a strong imagination to see a lion among these stars. But I 

 think a much larger lion can be readily seen, the head lying in Cancer, the mane 

 reaching to Leo Minor, the forepaws on the stars Zda, Epsilon, and Delia, which 



