902 Handbook of Nature-Study 



The summer is an enticing season for making the acquaintance of eight 

 of the fifteen brightest stars visible in northern latitudes. Few midsummer 

 entertainments rival that of lying on one's back on the grass of some open 

 space which commands a wide view of the heavens, and there with a plani- 

 sphere and an intermittently lighted candle with which to consult it, learn 

 by sight, by name and by heart those briUiant stars which will ever after 

 meet with friendly greeting our uplifted eyes. To teach the children in a 

 true informing way about the stars, the teacher should know them, and 

 nowhere in nature's realm is there a more thought-awakening lesson. 



LESSON CCXXXI 

 The Bright Stars of Summer 



Leading thought — The stars which we see shining during summer even- 

 ings are not the same ones that we see during the winter evenings, except 

 those in the polar constellations. There are eight of the brilliant summer 

 stars, which we should be able to distinguish and call by name. 



Method — Begin by the middle of May when the Big Dipper is well above 

 the Pole-star in the early evening, and when, therefore, Regulus, Spica, 

 Arcturus and the Crown are high in the sky. The others may be learned in 

 June, although July is the best month for observing them. In teaching the 

 pupils how to find the stars, again instruct them how to draw an imaginary 

 straight line from one star to another and to observe the angles made by 

 such lines connecting three or four stars. 



Place upon the blackboard the figures from the chart (page 901), as 

 indicated, leaving each one there until the pupils have observed and learned 

 it. Then erase and place another figure. In each case try to get the pupils 

 interested in what we know about each star, a brief summary of which is 

 given. Note that the observations given in the lessons are for early in the 

 evenings of the last of May, of June, and of early July. 



Regulus (reg'-u-lus) 



Draw upon the blackboard from the chart (p. 901) 



the Pole-star, the Big Dipper, the line G and the Sickle 



shown just below the outer end of the line. Extend 



the line that passes through the pointers of the Big 



Dipper to the North Star backward into the western 



skies ; just west of this line lies a constellation called the 



Sickle, and the stars that form it outline this implement. 



The Sickle has a jewel at the end of the handle, which is 



Regulus the large ^ ^^^^^ ^^^ diamond-ghttering star called Regulus. 



star in the handle I* is a great sun giving out one thousand times as much 



of the sickle. light as our own sun, and this light reaches us in about 



one hundred and sixty years. The Sickle is part of a 



constellation called the Lion, and from which comes the shower of 



meteors which we see on the evening of November 13th. Regulus is 



seen best in Spring. 



Arcturus {ark-tu'rus) 

 Place on the blackboard the Big Dipper, the Pole-star and the line 

 E, Arcturus and the Crown. Extend the handle of the Big Dipper fol- 



