Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/143

 on the neck of the Eagle is called Altair. Altair rises a little north of east with its twin stars Alshain and Trazed, about 9 o'clock on the 29th of May. It arrives at the meridian at 10 o'clock August 18th, at 9 o'clock September 2nd, and at 8 o'clock September 18th. It is then about two-thirds of the way up from the horizon. The three stars are called "The Shaft of Altair." Altair is one of the nearest of the brightest stars and is approaching the earth at the rate of 20 miles a second. You may step out now and look up at this star with a personal interest, but it is still far away. Indeed it is so very far away that generations will live and die and still an increase in its light will scarcely be noticeable.

A small arrow studded with five stars lies, pointing east, in the Milky Way, slightly to the north of Altair. These stars lie in the constellation of Sagitta, the Arrow, which the Greeks may have considered an arrow of Hercules aimed at one of the bird constellations, or the arrow with which the hero slew the vulture which tormented Prometheus on the top of the Caucasus mountains. It is sometimes also called "Cupid's Arrow." Sagitta is one of the oldest of the constellations, its history being lost even in the time of Aratus.



Delphinus, the Dolphin, may be located 10 degrees to the northeast of Aquila, the Eagle, and below and to the east of Cygnus, on the Milky Way. It is popularly known as "Job's Coffin," which, ridiculous or not, is said to have originated from the "diamond-shaped" form in which its stars are set. This conception, how-