The accompanying charts give two views of these principal southern
constellations that lie within 40° of the south pole of the heavens
and that are below the horizon in 40° north latitude. The first of
these charts shows the constellations that are nearest the meridian
in the early evening hours in February. Canopus in Argo Navis and the
Greater Magellanic Cloud then lie close to the meridian. Argo Navis
with its subdivisions Puppis, Vela and Carina are found east of the
meridian lying directly in the path of the Milky Way, which stretches
diagonally across the sky from the northwest to the southeast. Far
over in the southeast appears Crux, the Southern Cross, also directly
in the path of the Milky Way. In the western heavens may be seen the
Lesser Magellanic Cloud in Hydrus, brilliant Achernar in Eridanus
and the inconspicuous star-group of Tucana.
In the early evening hours of July we find as shown on the second
chart, Alpha and Beta Centauri in Centaurus close to the meridian,
Lupus due north of Centaurus, Ara and Triangulum Australe in the
southeast and Crux in fine position for observation just west of the
meridian. Carina of Argo Navis lies to the southwest of Crux. The
Milky Way now arches magnificently across the heavens from Carina
through Crux, Centaurus and Lupus and Ara to the zodiacal groups of
Scorpio and Sagittarius in the northeast.
In the northern part of the heavens, as seen from the southern
hemisphere, appear the familiar zodiacal constellations that we of
the northern hemisphere find south of the zenith, as well as the
constellations of Orion, Lepus and Canis Major, Hydra, Corvus and
Crater, Ophiuchus and Serpens and Aquila, all finely in view in their
appropriate seasons.
It is only our familiar circumpolar constellations of the north--The
Two Bears, Draco, Cassiopeia, and Cepheus, Andromeda and Perseus and
Auriga that are invisible in mid-latitudes of the southern hemisphere
just as the constellations shown in the diagrams, and a few
additional groups such as Pavo, Grus, Phoenix, Apus, Mensa and Volans
which we have not shown, lie hidden from view beneath the southern
horizon in mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere.
The northern visitor to the southern hemisphere familiar with the
constellations of his own land is filled with a queer sensation of
being in topsy-turvydom as he sees familiar Orion standing on his
head and all of the zodiacal constellations passing in their daily
motions to the north instead of to the south of his zenith while
by day the sun passes across the northern part of the heavens and
culminates north instead of south of his zenith. He misses the
familiar Dippers of his own land and searches in vain for a pole-star
in the unfamiliar circumpolar regions of the south.
XV
THE MILKY WAY OR GALAXY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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