The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-06-28

good eye and looks like 6 faint speck. Seen through powerful te- lescope it resolves itself into in- numerable separate stars (60,000 all larger than our own sun( and pre- SentS glorious spectacle. The head of Hercules is indicated by Alpha or Rasalgethi, the largest star yet discovered; his right shoulder by Alpha or Rasalgethi, the largest star yet discovered; his right should CT by Beta or Kornephoros; his left shoulder by Delta; his right leg by Sigma; and his left knee by Theta. The club he carries in his uplifted hand is marked by a row of eX- tremely faint stars.
 Lyra
 Directly east of the quadrilateral in Hercules lies the constellation of Lyra, the Tyre, with it's brilliant first magnitude star Vega. It is not a large constellation, but is easily recognized by a little equilateral triangle which Epsilon and Zeta Ly- rae form with Vega. Beta and Gam ma, below Vega and side by side, in- dicate the top of the strings of the Tyre whose base, towards the north, is marked by zeta and Delta. The line joining Beta Snd Gamma is then about parallel with that con- meeting Zeta and Delta. Vegas magnitude is equal to that of Arc turus in Bootes and Capella in Au- riga, being only about 14 hun dredths of magnitude below the zero rank. The brilliance of its blue white rays is remarkable, their color showing up beautifully in telescope, and Vega might well be called "a diamond in the sky" It is probably 40 times as bright as our sun.
 About 14,OOO years ago it was the north pole star, and as a result Epsilon is a famous quadruple, which an opera glass can separate into two nearly equal stars appar- ently almost touching one another On a line between Beta and Gam ma, and about one third of the dis tance from the former to the lat ter, is located the beautiful Ring Nebula, which will appear as a faint, minute circle like a little smoke ring in three inch telescope Recent photographs of this nebula reveal it as wonderful ring of | nter-twisted Spiras, in the center of which is a small star that ap- pears 100 times more prominent on photograph than through the telescope.
 ScOrpiO
 Scorpio, the Scorpion, located to the southeast of Virgo, is shaped like fan. Its most conspicuous star Antares or Alpha Scorpionis, is most easily found by drawing a line through Spica in Virgo and zuben- elgenubi in Libra and extending it an equal distance SoutheastWard till it meets a brilliant red star. The name "Antares" comes from the Greek word denoting some aSsocia- tion or contrast with Ares (Mars), the name which this ruddy planet has had from antiquity. Beta, Del ta, and Pi Scorpionis, to the west Of AntareS, form straight line re- Sembling somewhat the three stars in the belt of Orion. They mark the front of the Scorpions head. An tareS with Beta and Pl forms an equilateral triangle. Scorpio's tail, which starts with Epsilon, drops southward to the horizon, turns east ward, and then curves northWard again, ending in a conspicious pair of stars known as Lambde and Up- silon Scorpionis. The Scorpions tail grazes the southern horizon for ob- srevers in roughly 40 degrees north latitude. Stars south of Scorplo, therefore, can never be seen from this latitude. The eastern portion of the Scorpion loses itself in the Milky Way near its brightest part, where it falls behind the southern horizon.
 Somewhat less than halfway on a line connecting AntareS and Beta is a famous star cluster. William HerSchel, famous English aStrono- mer Q738- 1822), considered it the richest mass of stars in the sky. A new" star appeared in this cluster in 1860, but lasted for only about one month. Its brilliance was such, however, that it nearly extinguished the cluster, although it never be- came brighter than the sixth magnitude. On the eastern side of the cluster is starless Spot which was the first "black hole" in the sky, discovered by Herschel. Similar holes are prevalent in the neighboring constellation of Sagit- tarius, and these have given rise to interesting speculations about the outer universe. These regions were at one time regarded as actual, physical holes through which one might ltok out beyond our Milky Way. The yhave since been found