The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-28

Of all the bright consultations of winter, the Lion alone remains with us, and this is rapidly sinking toward the ground in the West. The great group Boots, or the Drives, with the northern crown, is now directly over head. while in the northeast the mag nificent summer star Vega has climbed more than half way up the sky, and it's beautiful followers, the Swan,and the Eagles. appear in the early even ing for the first time this year.
 The peculiar group Scorpio. (which bears so striking a resemblance to the animal from which 1t is named. is we'll above the ground in the South, its upstretck I'd claws reaching almost to the meridian and it's curving tall ex- tending downward into the milky way. The summer half of the Galaxy Is now with us, and on a clear night 1t may be traced all the way from Perseus in the northwest, through Cassiopoea. the Swan. and the Eagle. to below Scor- pio in the South. This half of the milky way is far more broken up and irregular than the part seen in winter. Between Scorpio and the Swan it Is especially interesting; bright areas al- ternate with lanes and vacant spaces as if the great universe of stars which
 
 move, not worlds only, nor suns. but whole multitudes of suns together.
 The observer can now trace out the long constellation of the Serpent. This begins near the northern Crown, pas ses southward and eastward through the Serpent Bearer, and finally runs along the center of the miI'--- way un- til 1t almost meets to the Eagle It was here the early Arabians located their group called the Pasture. The boundaries of this constellation were the stars in Fig. 1. lettered from A to J. while K and L were the shep- herd and his dog, the enclosed stars being the sheep. The star M in the serpent's tail. which lies between the two branches of the milky way, is a double easily seen In a small glass. The star at D is more difficult double. while that of F has minute twelfth magnitude companion. It is from the direction of the star F that the shoot ing stars which are seen about the middle of February appear to come.
 The magnificent group Scorpio with its fiery red star Antares, at F, is one of the most ancient of all constella- tions It probably originated in the early Euphratean astronomy of six thousand years ago, when the zodiac contained but six signs instead of twelve. Even when the number of di- visions was increased to twelve, Scor- pio was kept undivided as a double sign. In the later times the two stars which marked the claws were separa- ted into little group named Libra. of the Balances, thus mutilating and de- stroying the interesting and ancient figure.
 Scorpio was the slayer of the giant Brion, who still sinks below the hori- zon in fear just as the Scorpion be- gins to rise. In the very earliest times 1t was the symbol of darkness, prob ably because the suns power declines when 1t enters this constellation after the autumnal equinox.
 To astrologers the group was known as the accused constellation, pre- tending war and discord. The appear ance of a comet here was supposed to promise a plague of reptiles and in sects. This malign character may have been ascribed to it from the fiery Autares, or from association with the qualities of its poisonous earthly name sake. As several new stars have here blazed out in early times, some have thought that 1t might be to these that this evil reputation is due.