Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/200

 directly in the south. At such a time, they have been picturesquely likened to a "flock of wild geese flying southward."

Even so small a glass as an opera-glass will disclose a rich field of small stars about Taurus. These stars look as if they had been shuffled and had fallen together in interesting little groups of lights, which are very pleasing to the eye.



The Pleiades are visible from August until May. Five of the stars in this group may be plainly seen although most people can see six and many with keen eyesight can see seven and even nine. The telescope reveals about 3000 more surrounding the group which gives the appearance of mistiness in the vicinity of each star. These stars fill a space in the heavens equal to about 180 millions of millions of miles!

The five more important stars of the Pleiades lie in the form of a short-handled dipper. This is the fourth clearly marked dipper found in the sky—the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, the Milk Dipper and the Dipper of the Pleiades. These stars are also, with the Hyades, Præsepe, Coma Berenices and the cluster on the Sword Handle of Perseus, among the few clusters visible to the unaided eye.

Seven of the stars in the Pleiad group, named after the daughters of Atlas, are called Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Celæno, Taygeta, Maia and Asterope. Two other stars were named after the father Atlas and the mother Pleione. The Hyades and the Plei-