Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/148

 horizon, on September first at 8 P. M. Sagittarius is low in the south at the same time that Vega is on the meridian.

In the star-maps, the Centaur is shown halting at the edge of the star stream and aiming across its mist of light at the great red star which flutters on the heart of the Scorpion. The Scorpion, however, is pictured as observing with interest the nearby tail of the many-headed watersnake although he is almost crushed by the mighty foot of the giant Ophiuchus whose head lies high up in the sky against that of Hercules. The Centaur's group of stars, the constellation of Sagittarius, is a zodiacal constellation, with the arrow and part of the bow for its symbol. ♐︎

There is also another centaur in the sky but no part of him can be seen in these latitudes. This constellation contains two famous stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri, sometimes called the "Southern Pointers" because they point to the figure of the Southern Cross. These two stars are on the Centaur's forefeet. Alpha Centauri is the nearest star to the earth, lying at a distance of only 25,000,000,000,000 miles. Unthinkable as this number of miles may seem, it is such a short distance across the fields of the heavens that Alpha Centauri and our sun would appear to be very close together as seen from the planets of other stars. Thus our kingdom of the sun is not an isolated isle among the dim star-lights of space, but shines as one of the stars in a community of such kingdoms. The tiny star 61 Cygni is the nearest star to the earth as seen from the northern hemisphere.