64 
NATURE STUDY. 
two months. About ten degrees to the left of Jupiter and at & 
lower altitude is a first magnitude star which shows to most eyes 
a decided reddish tint. This is the the star Antares, which the ob¬ 
server will readily recall as the name of one of Ben Hur’s horses 
in the famous chariot race. About two degrees to the eastward 
and downward is plainly visible another star of lesser magnitude. 
Near Jupiter, above and to the left, is another star second in 
brightness to Antares, and call Beta, the second letter of the 
Greek alphabet. If now we regard Antares as a center and the 
line joining it with Beta as a radius and describe the arc of a 
circle downward this curved line would pass very near three or 
four other stars of lesser magnitude than the two above men¬ 
tioned, but so arranged that if lines be drawn from them to 
Antares the figure would have some resemblance to an instru¬ 
ment called a sextant, or a boy’s kite, which is merely a sector 
of a circle. This is the principal group in the constellation 
Scorpio, which contains in all forty-four stars. Under favor¬ 
able conditions, as at the top of a mountain, or on a moonless 
and cloudless night on the water, a lme of stars can be dis¬ 
tinctly traced downward and to the left about fifteen degrees, 
thence easterly about eight degrees, and then upward about 
eight degrees more, the whole forming a sort of staff and curve 
like a shepherd’s crook. This crooked line of stars forms the 
tail of the Scorpion as represented on the picture charts. 
There is a place above, where Scorpio’s bent, 
In tail and arms surrounds a vast extent; 
In a wide circuit of the heavens he shines, 
And fills the place of two celestial signs.”— Ovid. 
About thirty degrees east of Scorpio and at about the sarpe 
altitude may now readily be distinguished another group of stars 
of the third and fourth magnitude, arranged in such a way as 
to form a figure resembling a small short-handled dipper or ba¬ 
sin turned nearly bottom upward, with the handle extending 
westward. This is the principal group in the constellation Sagit¬ 
tarius, the archer, which contains in all sixty-nine stars. This 
distinguishing group is called the Milk Dipper because it lies 
partly in the Milky Way. 
