Part 14

is a red star, the most prominent of the first stars in the stream. The stars in Piscis Australis can be traced out with an opera-glass.

Fomalhaut and Capella, in Auriga, rise almost exactly at the same minute.

Fomalhaut is one of the four "royal stars" of astrology. The others are Regulus, Antares, and Aldebaran.

CAPRICORNUS (kap-ri-k[^o]r'-nus)--THE SEA GOAT. (Face Southwest.)

LOCATION.--A line drawn from Pegasi through and in the same constellation, and projected about 25, strikes and in Capricornus.

This constellation contains three principal stars-- and mentioned above, and about 20 east of them.

The water jar of Aquarius is about the same distance northeast of Capricorni that Fomalhaut, in the Southern Fish, is southeast of it.

has a companion which can be seen by the naked eye. It is a fine sight in an opera-glass. These two stars are gradually separating.

is a double star, one being blue, the other yellow.

The constellation resembles a chapeau, or peaked hat, upside down.

The stars in the head of the Sea Goat, and are only 2 apart, and can hardly be mistaken by an observer facing the southwestern sky during the early evening in autumn.

Five degrees east of is the point announced by Le Verrier as the position of his predicted new planet, Neptune.

Flammarion claims that the Chinese astronomers noted the five planets in conjunction in Capricornus, in the year 2449 B.C.

The sign of the Goat was called by the ancient Orientalists "The Southern Gate of the Sun."

ARIES ([=a]'-ri-[=e]z)--THE RAM. (Face Southeast.)

LOCATION.--The star in Aries, known as Hamal, and sometimes as Arietis, a star of the second magnitude, is about 7 south of Trianguli. A line drawn from the Pole Star to Andromedae, and prolonged about 20, ends at Hamal.

Aries contains three principal stars, forming a characteristic obtuse-angled triangle.

The star Arietis was one of the first double stars discovered. A telescope is required to split it. Hamal lies near the path of the moon, and is one of the stars from which longitude is reckoned.

Below Aries may be seen the characteristic pentagon in the head of Cetus, the Whale.

More than two thousand years ago Aries was the leading constellation of the zodiac, and now stands first in the list of zodiacal signs.

The Arabians knew this constellation as Al Hamal, the sheep.

and are one instance out of many where stars of more than ordinary brightness are seen together in pairs, the brightest star being generally on the east.

CETUS (s[=e]'-tus)--THE WHALE. (Face Southeast.)

LOCATION.--A line drawn from Polaris, to Cassiopeiae, and prolonged two and one third times its original length, reaches the centre of this constellation.

It lies just below Aries and the Triangle, and resembles the figure of the prehistoric icthyosaurus, while some see in the outline an easy chair. The head of the beast is characterized by a clearly traced pentagon, about 20 southeast of Aries. The brightest star in the constellation is of the second magnitude. It is at one apex of the pentagon, about 15 east of Al Rischa in Pisces, and 37 directly south of Algol.

The noted variable Mira also known as Ceti is the chief object of interest in this constellation.

It was discovered by Fabricius in 1596 and varies from the ninth magnitude to the third or fourth in a period of 334 days. It can be observed during its entire range with a 3" glass.

In 1779 Mira is reported to have been as bright as the first-magnitude star Aldebaran. It lies almost exactly on a line joining and Ceti a little nearer the former. Ten degrees south of it are four faint stars about 3 apart forming a square.