In Coma Berenices there is an outlying field of the marvelous nebulous region of Virgo, which we may explore on some future evening. But the nebulae in Coma are very faint, and, for an amateur, hardly worth the trouble required to pick them up. The two clusters included in the map, 2752 and 3453, are bright enough to repay inspection with our largest aperture. [Illustration: MAP NO. 7.] Although Hydra is the largest constellation in the heavens, extending about seven hours, or 105 deg., in right ascension, it contains comparatively few objects of interest, and most of these are in the head or western end of the constellation, which we examined during our first night at the telescope. In the central portion of Hydra, represented on map No. 7, we find its leading star alpha, sometimes called Alphard, or Cor Hydrae, a bright second-magnitude star that has been suspected of variability. It has a decided orange tint, and is accompanied, at a distance of 281", p. 153 deg., by a greenish tenth-magnitude star. Bu. 339 is a fine double, magnitudes eight and nine and a half, distance 1.3", p. 216 deg.. The planetary nebula 2102 is about 1' in diameter, pale blue in color, and worth looking at, because it is brighter than most objects of its class. Tempel and Secchi have given wonderful descriptions of it, both finding multitudes of stars intermingled with nebulous matter. For a last glimpse at celestial splendors for the night, let us turn to the rich cluster 1630, in Argo, just above the place where the stream of the Milky Way--here bright in mid-channel and shallowing toward the shores--separates into two or three currents before disappearing behind the horizon. It is by no means as brilliant as some of the star clusters we have seen, but it gains in beauty and impressiveness from the presence of one bright star that seems to captain a host of inferior luminaries. CHAPTER IV VIRGO AND HER NEIGHBORS ... "that region Where still by night is seen The Virgin goddess near to bright Booetes."--POSTE'S ARATUS. [Illustration: MAP NO. 8.] Following the order of right ascension, we come next to the little constellations Crater and Corvus, which may be described as standing on the curves of Hydra (map No. 8). Beginning with Crater, let us look first at alpha, a yellow fourth-magnitude star, near which is a celebrated red variable R. With a low power we can see both alpha and R in the same field of view, like a very wide double. There is a third star of ninth magnitude, and bluish in color, near R on the side toward alpha. R is variable both in color and light. When reddest, it has been described as "scarlet," "crimson," and "blood-colored"; when palest, it is a deep orange-red. Its light variation has a period the precise length of which is not yet known. The cycle of change is included between the eighth and ninth magnitudes.