The Heavens in August. 
By Professor Samuel G. Barton of the University of Pennsylvania. 
T HE constellations visiblethismonth 
are shown on Figure i. The names 
applied to these groups of stars 
have come down to us from days so re- 
mote that no records exist of times 
when they were not applied. A few 
names were applied in historic times 
but they are not those of important 
the constellations are named. In but a 
few cases is there any apparent re- 
semblance between the arrangement of 
the stars and the figure. In Figure 2 
are shown the stars in Ursa Major and 
the figure of the bear as imagined, so 
far as we can tell, by those who called 
this group a bear. It will be seen that 
WORTH 
Figure 1. The constellations at 9 P. M. (Standard Time), August 1. Hold the map so that the 
direction faced is at the bottom; that is, if facing east hold east at the bottom as south now is. 
northern constellations. A familiar pas- 
sage often cited to show the age of the 
constellations is found in Job 9:9 in 
which reference is made to the Bear 
(Ursa Major), Orion and the Pleiades. 
The maps from ancient times show us 
the outlines of the figures from which 
the brighter stars do not lie at any im- 
portant points in the figure. The three 
stars in the handle of the dipper seem 
to designate the tail of the bear, but no 
living bear has a tail such as is found 
in this drawing. The man who drew 
the bear was an ancient nature faker. 
