Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/211

Rh its surprising brilliancy. Two faint stars close to Vega on the east make a beautiful little triangle with it, and thus form a further means of recognition, if any were needed. Your opera-glass will show that the floor of heaven is powdered with stars, fine as the dust of a diamond, all around the neighborhood of Vega, and the longer you gaze the more of these diminutive twinklers you will discover.

Now direct your glass to the northernmost of the two little stars near Vega, the one marked Epsilon (&epsilon;) in the map. You will perceive that it is composed of two stars of almost equal magnitude. If you had a telescope of considerable power, you would find that each of these stars is in turn double. In other words, this wonderful star which appears single to the unassisted eye, is in reality quadruple, and there is reason to think that the four stars composing it are connected in pairs, the members of each pair revolving around their common center



while the two pairs in turn circle around a center common to all. With a field-glass you will be able to see that the other star near Vega, Zeta (&zeta;), is also double, the distance between its components being three quarters of a minute, while the two stars in ε are a little