Evening star., 1896-12-05


ion flashes the brilliant Dog Star Sirius.
Almost exactly in the east, and at about
the same altitude as Sirius, is Procycn, the
Little Dog. Above Orion, on line drawn
from Sirius through the Three Kings"
which form Orion's belt, is Aldebaran, the
Bulls Eye the brightest star in Taurus
TO the left of Aldebaran and at about the
same altitude in the northeast is Capella
the She Goat. the principal star in Auriga
the Wagner. Below Capella, and a little
to the right, are the Twins, Castor and Pol
lux, the latter Of which-the lower of the
two-is sometimes ranked as a first-magni-
tude star. ...T
Here, within area which is scarcely
one-fifth of the visible hemisphere of the
heavens, are, seven stars of the first mag
nitude-one-half of the number that are
ever visible in the mean latitude of the
United States. To add to the attractive
ness of this region the planet Mars. now
the cynosure Of all eyes astronomical, is
posing here an evening star" outSnin-
ing with its ruddy light the brightest of
these brilliants, except perhaps, Sirius.
The planet now lies about midway between
the two stars which tip the horns of Tau
rus, and in straight line from Capelia TO
the head of Orion. No one can mistake it
for an ordinary star.
In the west the winged horse Pegasus
may be seen, at the hour named, plunging
headforemost toward the western horizon.
The most striking part of this consteia-
ton is the great Square" now nearly mid
way between the horizon and the zenith
The uppermost (now) of the four second
magnitude stars which form this rectanex4-
lar figure, AlpharatZ is in the head of An
dromeda. Her left foot-marked by the
star Gamma-is now almost exactly in the
zenith. Midway between these two stars
is Beta. the brightest of the three which
form the maidens belt. Near the northern
he fa r,aI,,
ible to the naked eye as a rather misty
star of the fifth magnitude, and unmis-
takably recognizable through an opera
glass.
Interesting Variable Star.
Continuing the curving line of the three
bright stars in Andromeda, toward the
northeast. We strike Alpha Persei, which
like them is of the second magnitude.
Southwark from Alpha Persei, making
with it and the star Gamma in Andromeda
a nearly right-angled triangle, is Algol, the
Demon as it's Arabic name signifies, an
interesting variable star with which every
young star gaZer should become familiar
Ordinarily it is of the second magnitude
as will be found to be the case tomorrow.
But at intervals of a little less than three
days 1t undergoeS remarkable change of
brilliancy. descending in the space of about
four hours to the fourth magnitude and
as quickly recovering its usual brightness
L ne cause of this unCanny behavior as is
now considered to have been fully estab-
lished by spectroscope observations, is that
1t has circling around it a dark or nearly
dark companion, which periodically comes
between it and us and cuts off portion of
its light. Minima, or Algol. at hours con-
venient for observing. will occur on the
10th of this month, at II pm, and on the
I'D, at pm.
Turning now toward the SOUTH we shall
have before us the monster constellation
Cetus, the Whale, not particularly inter
esting as constellation. for it's brightest
two stars are of only the second magnitude
but notable for containing one of the most
remarkable of the variable stars, Omicron
Ceti, better known as Mira, the "Wonder-
full" .''
in this way: Run a slightly curving line
from Fomalhaut-the bright star now seen
low in the southwest-to Aldeba ran, in