Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/772

748 In the same way you will be able to find the constellations Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Draco, and Perseus. Don't expect to accomplish it all in an hour. You may have to devote two or three evenings to observation, and make many trips indoors to consult the map, before you have mastered the subject; but when you have done it you will feel amply repaid for your exertions, and you will have made for yourself silent friends in the heavens that will beam kindly upon you, like old neighbors, on whatever side of the world you may wander.

Having fixed the general outlines and location of the constellations in your mind, and learned to recognize the chief stars, take your opera-glass and begin with the constellation Leo and the star Regulus. Contrive to have some convenient rest for your arms in holding the glass, and thus obtain not only comfort but steadiness of vision. A lazy-back chair makes a capital observing-seat.

You will at once be gratified by the increased brilliancy of the star as seen by the glass. If the night is clear it will glow like a diamond. Yet Regulus, although ranked as a first-magnitude star, and of great repute among the ancient astrologers, is far inferior in brilliancy to such stars as Capella and Arcturus, to say nothing of Sirius.

By consulting the little map of the constellation Leo, here given, you will next be able to find the celebrated star bearing the name of the Greek letter Gamma (γ). If you had a telescope, you would see this star as a close and beautiful double, of contrasted colors. But it is optically double, even with an opera-glass. You can not fail to see a small star near it, looking quite close, if the magnifying power of your glass is less than three times. You will be struck by the surprising



change of color in turning from Regulus to Gamma—the former is white and the latter deep yellow. It will be well to look first at one and then at the other, several times, for this is a good instance of what you will meet with many times in your future surveys of the heavens—a striking contrast of color in neighboring stars. You will