Page:The Friendly Stars by Martha Evans Martin.djvu/93

 Antares is one of the southern stars, which, as has been explained, are the stars that lie south of the celestial equator, no matter whether they are visible to us or not. It is, with one exception, farther south than any other of the very bright stars (stars of the first magnitude) that can be seen in our latitude. It rises in the southeast and has so short a course over which to pass, in our view, that it reaches the half-way point, or the meridian, in about four hours and a quarter.

Antares comes into view two hours and a half later than Vega, an hour and a half later than Deneb, and nearly an hour earlier than Altair. But it is so much farther south than Altair that it seems more aloof from us and it scarcely emerges from the hazy lower atmosphere until Altair is shining gayly and has already become one of the important figures in the eastern summer sky.

While the latter part of June and all of July are perhaps the best times to see Antares at its brightest, it is an interesting star to observe much earlier in the season. If one has an unobstructed view of the south-eastern sky down almost to the horizon, he will note the appearance of Antares as early as the middle of May between nine and ten