HOW TO FIND THE CONSTELLATIONS. 
47 
How to Find the Constellations, II. 
BY GEORGE I. HOPKINS. 
If the observer has watched closely the movements of the 
two constellations already located, he must have noticed, not 
only that they make a complete circuit about Polaris every 
twenty-four hours, but also that they arrive at any particular 
position about four minutes earlier every evening ; so that he 
will find them in nearly the same positions on the first of Au¬ 
gust about eight o’clock, that he did a month before at nine 
o’clock. But as it is not yet quite dark enough at eight to 
make out the stars plainly we will continue to make our obser¬ 
vations at nine. 
Let the observer now direct his gaze at Polaris as the starting 
point, and then he can quite readily follow a line of stars curv¬ 
ing upward and to the left until a quadrant has been described, 
when he will see a pair of stars of about the third magnitude. 
Following the curve back a little way, he will see two other 
stars, fainter than the rest, but so situated that, with the pair 
above mentioned they form an oblong parallelogram. This is 
the bowl of the Little Dipper, the handle being the curve of 
which Polaris is the end. This is the principal group of stars 
in the constellation Ursa Minor, or Little Bear, which contains 
in all twenty-four stars. 
There is a beautiful mythological story relating to Ursa Ma¬ 
jor and Ursa Minor, which runs as follows : The majestic and 
beautiful queen of Mt. Olympus became jealous of Diana’s 
beautiful attendant Callisto, and changed her into a bear. Some 
time afterwards her son Arcus, while out hunting, pursued her, 
unaware that she was his mother, and was about to transfix her 
with his spear, when Jupiter, out of deep pity, immediately 
transferred them both to the heavens and placed them among 
the constellations, as the Great Bear and Little Bear, where 
