Evening star., 1898-08-06
Brilliant Illumination of the Heavens
This Month.
FIVE STARS OF TIE FIRST MAGNITUDE
How to Find Noted Consultations
and to Trace the Figures.
ETEORS AND PL A y ETS

Written for The Evening Star.
Five stars of the first ma gnitude will be
above the horizon at o'clock tomorrow
evening. They are Vega, nearly overhead;
Arcturus In the west: Spica, at low alti-
.ude between west and southwest: Antares,
= little west of south, at one-fourth of the
distance from the horizon to the zenith,
and Affair, at two-iifths of the distance
from Vega TO the southeastern horizon.
The brilliant orange-yellow star which
may now be seen about ten degrees above
and at the right of Antares is the planet
Saturn Barely above the horizon in the
west is the still more brilliant Jupiter.
Vega stands at one corner of the Tyre.
Arcturus is in the left leg of Bootes. the
Herdsman. Between these two constella-
lions lie Hercules and the Northern Crown
Between Hercules and the Pole Star is
Draco the Dragon, The two "eyt S" OF which
are nearly in a line between Vega and the
Great Dipper now in midheavens in the
northwest. AT about the same altitude in
the northeast is the W-shaped figure ot
Cassiopeia. Below Vega-between 1t ana
the eastern horiZon-is the Swan, or North
ern Cross, and still lower, between east ami
northeast, the great Square of Pegasus is
fairly above the horizon. Affair marks the
position of the Eagle. Between the Eagle
and the Square of Pegasus is the sparkling
little constellation of the Dolphin
The Scorpion.
We will turn to the south and spend a
few moments with the splendid array Of
stars which may now be seen here at about
3 o'clock, or an hour so earlier toward
the close of the month. These stars be-
long to the Scorpion, Sagittarius and the
lower part of Ophiuchus. Although but one
of thern-Antares-is of the first magnitude
they make up in number what they lack
in brlliancy, and their combined erect Is
to render this region of the heavens hardly
less resplendent than that which contains
Orion and his retinue of first-ma gnitude
stars. Like Orion. the Scorpion is situated
on the border of and partly in the Milky
Way: and like Orion again-with whom ii
is associated in mythology, if this is indeed
the very scorpion which caused the boast
full hunters death-it is one of the few con
stella tions that we can make something
of With a very slight effort of the i'm
agination one can see here the gigantic fig
ure of a scorpion, its claws at the right OF
Antares and its tail curving downward on
the left. 1t is therefore with some surprise
that one finds, upon consulting a chart,
that the stars out of which he has formed
the claws-the really characteristic feature
of the constellation-do not belong to the
Scorpion, but form part of Libra. which
precedes it on the west. The fact is
tronomers have tampered with this good
old constellation, as they have with several
others, for reasons of their own, and have
robbed the Scorpion of some of its stars
to improve the balance.
Seen Through an Opera Glass.
The whole of this star-bespangled region
is rich in objects suited to a small tele-
scope, and even with an opera glass one
may pick up here many a little gem in the
shape Of a star-cluster which is just be-
yond the reach of the naked eye Turn the
glass upon Antares and note the contrast
between its ruddy hue and the pure white
of The surrounding stars The little
about the star Beta-the uppermost star of
a line of three of the third magnitude at
the right of Antares-shows very prettily
through an opera glass and Is particularly
interesting Just now because one of the
stars seen here tof the sixth magnltudel is
the planet Uranus. The star Mu-marked
NJ the planisphere-is a double star,
wide enough to be separated with the
naked eye, if the eye is fairly good for dis
tant objects. 1t is a pretty opera-glass
object, and it will give one who may never
have seen a double star through a telescope
a good idea of how this instrument sepa-
rates into two more many stars which
to the naked eye appear to be single.
Revolving Stars.
The upper of the two stars which form
Mu Scorpii. has been found by means of
the spectroscope to be a very close 'bi-
nary" That is to say, it has been found
to consist of two stars which revolve one
about the other, like the balls of dumb
Dell tossed INTO lEe ar, tHOuSn SO close TO
each other are the stars two components
that they cannot be seen separately
through the largest telescope. The revo-
luton is performed in the remarkably short
period of thirty-five hours. These conclu-
sions have been reached from study OF
photographs of the stars spectrum, taken
at different times, which show periodic
doubling of its lines. which can be account
ed for only in this way. This star was the
third to be discovered with the SpectroScope
to be binary the first being MiZar, the mid
die star in the handle of the Dipper and
the second being Beta Aurigae. Two other
stars have recently been added to the list
of .'spectroscopic binaries,' making five in
all that are now known. All of these dis
coyeries have been made by the Harvard
College astronomers.
Sagittarius, the Archer.
At the left, or east of the Scorpion. may
be seen group of ten or twelve stars, in
which one may discover, If he is somewhat
imaginative, the figure of a horse with a
rider upon his back. These stars belong to
Sagittarius, the Archer, who is represented
ON celestial chart a centaur-a mon-
ster half horse and half human-draw-
ing a bow and apparently in hot pursuit
of the Scorpion. They form only a small
portion of the constellation, as 1t is repre-
sented on the chart-little more than the
bow and arrow-but 1t seems not unlikely
that originally they formed the whole of II
At any rate, the group is too striking to
have been overlooked by one who was in
search of animal shapes among the stars
and the supposition helps to clear away
some OF the mystery which shrouds these
old consultations. Five of these stars-the