To relieve the barrenness of this region, there appears just to the south of Aquarius and southeast of Capricornus, sparkling low in the southern sky on crisp October evenings, the beautiful first-magnitude star Fomalhaut in the small southern constellation of Piscis Australis, The Southern Fish. This star is the farthest south of all the brilliant first-magnitude stars that can be seen from the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The constellation in which it lies is so close to the southern horizon in our latitudes that it cannot be seen to any advantage, and it is at best very inconspicuous, containing no other objects of interest. Fomalhaut cannot be mistaken for any other star visible at this time of year in the evening, since it stands in such a solitary position far to the south. At the time of which we are writing it will be found a few degrees east of the meridian. XII NOVEMBER Directly south of Cassiopeia and Cepheus, the circumpolar constellations with which we became acquainted last month, and almost overhead in our latitudes in the early evening hours of November, lie Pegasus, The Winged Horse, and Andromeda, The Woman Chained. According to the legend, Cepheus was king of Ethiopia, and Cassiopeia was the beautiful, but vain, queen who dared to compare herself in beauty with the sea-nymphs. This so enraged the nymphs that, as a punishment for her presumption, they decided to send a terrible sea-monster to ravage the coast of the kingdom. The king and queen, upon consulting the oracle, found that the only way to avert this calamity would be to chain their daughter Andromeda to the rocks and permit the monster to devour her. [Illustration: NOVEMBER--ANDROMEDA AND PEGASUS] As the story goes, the valiant hero, Perseus, chanced to be riding through the air on his winged horse and saw, far beneath him the beautiful maiden chained to the rocks and the frightful monster approaching to devour her. He immediately went to the rescue, and, after a terrible struggle with the monster, succeeded in overpowering him and thus saved the maiden from a dreadful fate. Perseus and the fair Andromeda were married shortly afterward, and at the end of a happy life the pair were transferred to the heavens. Cassiopeia, the vain queen, was ordered to be bound to a chair and, with the king Cepheus at her side, to be swung continually around the north pole of the heavens that she might be taught a lesson in humility. The constellation Cetus, representing the sea-monster, will be found to the southeast and south of Pisces, The Fishes, which lie south of Andromeda and Pegasus.