Part 15

Their sizes vary. Orion, for instance, takes up a great space in the heavens, while others occupy little room.

How many stars go to make up a constellation?

You mean those seen by the naked eye. These differ in number. I will run over some of the Zodiac. Aries has 66, Taurus 141, Gemini 83, Cancer 85, Leo 95, Virgo 110, Libra 51, Scorpio 44, Sagittarius 69, Capricornus 51, Aquarius 108, Pisces 113.

But there must be a lot more seen in them by the telescope.

Yes. The six stars of the Pleiades turn out to be 188. In Orion there are 2000 stars easily distinguished. Your three in the belt are 80, and the star in the sword you find to be a dozen.

Will you kindly show me, dear father, how I can find the south pole of the heavens, as there is no bright star near it?

I will try and give you a rough chart. Look at the Southern Cross. Draw an imaginary line from the top star through the one at the foot; and four times that distance in the same line will bring you to the south pole of the heavens.

Yes; and if I had that point over my head I should be where no one else has been--at the south pole of the earth. Now I have my centre, I would like to describe a circle at the distance of the Cross and know the stars inside of it.

Begin, then. Look at the two bright ones pointing toward the Cross beside it. They are the Pointers to the Cross. A lot of bright stars together, on the other side of the Cross, are in the Ship, Argo. Follow on the circumference that way, and you arrive at a large star, a little north of our course, called Canopus. From the Cross to Canopus is one-quarter of the circle round the pole, and it is filled up with the Ship.

What a ship!

It goes northward, too, to Sirius, the Dog-star. Canopus is half-way between Sirius and the south pole, and is in the line between the two.

That is a capital point, for I know them.

South of the Ship, between it and the pole, are the little Flying Fish. The Table Mountain and Chameleon, with feeble stars, are between the Fish, again, and the poles.

Now I have that quarter of the circle, well.

Keep on to the right, still away from the Cross and beyond Canopus, nearly as far again, and you see a bright star in our circle, which is called Achernar, at the bottom of the long River Po.

Not the Italian river, but the Celestial one.

That heavenly stream runs northward to Orion. Now, between Canopus and Achernar we see but few stars, although we pass the constellations of the Painter’s Easel, Rhomboidal Net, and Clock. Between Achernar and the Pole are the tiny stars of the Little Hydra. But between the Little Hydra and the Flying Fish, resting like on the Table Mountain, is the beautiful Nubecular Major, the great Magellanic Cloud.

Now I know where I am again. The Rhomboidal Net is on one side of the Cloud, and the Flying Fish on the other. The Table by the Pole is south of it. But what is north of it, for Canopus is not quite in a line with the Cloud and the Pole?

The Sword Fish is on the Cloud. But go again to Achernar, and draw a line thence to the Pole.

Why, it goes right through the Little Magellanic Cloud.

That Cloud is between the Hydra and the Toucan. That bird’s head beyond Achernar is in our circumference of the Cross. A little further on that round line is the bright star in the Peacock’s head; though the Indian, with his arrows, stands between the Peacock and the Toucan.

The very place for a hunter. But go on, please, for you are fast completing the circle, by getting back to the Cross.

The end of the Peacock’s tail brings us three-fourths round; and above it, from the Pole, is the Southern Crown.

I see it; but it ought to hang over something better than a Peacock’s tail.

It so happens that the Telescope comes between them. Below the Peacock, and close round the south pole, is the constellation Octant. Now for the last quarter, between the Cross and the Peacock.

I know part of that--the Cross’s Pointers. But what are those three stars a little below the Pointers, toward the Peacock?

They are the Southern Triangle. Between the Cross and the Pole is the Fly; while between the Triangle and the Pole is the Bird of Paradise.

What a cold place to put so delicate a bird! But to what constellation do the two Pointers to the Cross belong?