The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-01

niZed because it's shape is that of the letter W Now face south and not far
 below the zenith you will see a very
 bright star, which is Arcturus in
 Bootes The last two stars of the
 handle of the Big Dipper. almost
 circle of Corona Borealis, with the
 bright star Gemmas it's jewel, in the
 center. To the east of this, in turn,
 is broad field of medium bright
 stars, which compose the group of
 Hercules. Further on, but yet fair
 ly well up in the heavens, is the ex-
 tremely bright bluis1a- white star Vega. This star is easily recognizable, with it's two fainter companions, and can well be used as a reference point in the study of the surrounding stars. Down in the east near the horizon is Aquila the Eagle, with it's first magnitude star Altair, and far in the southeast is Antares of the group Scorpio. A little less than half way up from the horizon in the south is
 Spica, the brightest of the consteIla- ton of the Virgin Now pro1ong the Pointer stars of the Dipper in the di-
 rection opposite, that of the North Pole, and the line VIII pass through the group of the Smaller Lion, an in conspicuous constellation, to that of the Lion Leo. In it are a number of bright stars, the most brilliant being Regulus and the next one Denebola, both indicated and named on the map Near Regu1usy is a reddish l looking star which is really no star at all but the planet Mars. You can
 readily tell him from Regu1us by the l reddish color and especially by the fact that. Mars does not twinkle as do the surrounding stars. Far down in l the west, preparing to set are the l twins, Castor and Pollux. with the l
 zon.
 l We have, then, here pointed out a l way to use the star map to good ad- l vantage by showing how to pick out
 certain easily recognizable objects to use as guide posts in 8 further at 1 tempt to learn the identity of the
 stars.
 l The New ConstelIations for June l Two very prominent newcomers 1 g1ave this month crossed the horizan l by the time of our map Altair in 1 Aquila, the Eagle and Antares in Scor- pio. both mentioned above. AItair 1 is a star brighter than the standard 1 first magniture star, and it's dis tance from the Earth is probably not l less than fifteen light years; it is ap- preaching the Earth at the rate of | about 24 miles per second. Antares
 in Scorpio is not quite so bright, but !, is a famous sight on account of it's ruddy tinge, much like that of the l planet Mars. It has a tiny compan- l ion which can be seen in a, telescope with a. five inch lens. The color is
 rreen, and the two stars, of such con-
 trasting coIors, make a beautiful sight. l IAstro1ogers looked upon red Antares I as a star of great misfortune, of fire and war, and he certainly was an ob- I ject of worship to the old Egyptians. l Olcott says in his book on the Star Lore of the Ages that the a1chemists
 believed that only when the Sun was in the constellation of Scorpio could l the much desired transmutation of iron into gold be performed.
 Mars and Venus are visible in the 1 evening sky, as shown on the chart,
 and Mercury can be seen just before
 sunrise on and about June 29. The Sun will be, at the Summer solstice on 1 June 21 and on that day will attain
 at noon the highest possible altitude
 above the horizon, giving us the long
 est day and the shortest night of the Iyear.