Sky Study 897 



5. Note that west of the red star above and east of the white star 

 below are two fainter stars. If we connect these four stars by hnes we shall 

 make an irregular four-sided figure, fencing in the belt and sword. Sketch 

 this figure with the belt and sword, and write on your diagram the name of 

 the red star above and the white star below and also the name of the con- 

 stellation. 



6. Which star of the constellation rises first in the evening? Which 

 last? 



7. Write an English theme on the story of Orion, the great hunter. 

 Supplementary reading — Stories of Starland, Proctor; The Stars in 



Song and Legead- Pfttter; Storyland of the Stars, Pratt. 



/iLDEBARAN AND THE PLEIADES 



Teacher's Story 

 Almost in a line with the belt of Orion, up in the skies northwest from it, 

 is the rosy star Aldebaran. This ruddy star, which is not so red as Betle- 

 geuse, marks the end of the lower arm of a V-shaped 

 constellation composed of this and four other stars. 

 This constellation is the Hyades (hi'a-des). The 

 Hyades is a part of the constellation called by the 

 ancients Taurus, the bull, and is the head of the in- 

 furiated animal. Aldebaran is a comparatively near 

 neighbor of ours, since it takes light only thirty-two Aldebaran in the V- 

 years_ to pass from it to us. It gives off about forty- 'J^l^// Z'^H^adeT 

 five times as much light as does our sun; it lies in the 7-/,/^ {^ a pari of 

 path traversed by the moon as it crosses the sky, and is the consiellaiion, 

 often thus hidden from our view. Taurus. 



Although we are attracted by many bright stars in the win- 

 ter sky, yet there is a little misty group of stars, which has 

 ever held the human attention enthralled, and of which the 

 poets of all the ages have sung. These stars are called the 

 Pleiades (ple'ya-dees) ; most eyes can count only six stars in 

 the constellation. There are nine stars large enough to be seen 

 through the telescope, and which have been given names; but sky 

 photography has revealed to us that there are more than three thousand 

 stars in this little group. Perhaps no stars in the heavens give us juch a 

 feeling of the infinity of the universe as do the Pleiades ; for astronomers 

 believe that they form a great star system which is now being evolved from 

 a nebula. The reason for this belief is that these stars 

 seem to be surrounded by a brilliant mist which some- 

 times seems to be looped from one to another; and, 

 too, the stars are all in the same stage of development 

 and have the same chemical composition, and they are 

 all moving together in the same direction. These 

 stars which look so close together to us are so far apart 

 The Pleiades a group j-g^jj ^-^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ g^^ ^^^ ^yy -^3 planets could roll in 

 of stx small stars sur- ,. ■' ^ . , , , ■ 1 x , 11 



rounded by a misty between them and never be noticed. It would require 



light. several years for light to travel from one of these stars 



in the Pleiades to another. The Pleiades are so far 



from us that we cannot estimate the distance, but we know that it takes 



light several hundred years to reach us from them. There is a mythical 



