Now let the eye run along the curve of the Dipper’s handle, beginning at the bowl, and then, springing on, continue the same curve eastward; it will encounter, at a distance about equal to the whole length of the Dipper, a very great and brilliant star--Arcturus, brighter than Spica and Regulus, and usually, when not very far risen from the horizon, of a distinctly reddish hue. It is the chief star of Boötes, the “Driver,” the “Vociferator,” the “Herdsman,” or the “Bear-watcher,” as it has been variously rendered. We shall have more to say about Boötes in another chapter, but Arcturus is a star so splendid and famous that it cannot be passed in silence the first time the beginner catches sight of it. There is a standing dispute concerning the relative rank in brightness of Arcturus among the leading stars of the northern hemisphere. Its principal rivals are Vega in the Lyre, and Capella in Auriga. But all three differ in color, and that makes it more difficult to decide upon their relative brilliance, since different eyes vary in their sensitiveness to color. The Harvard Photometric _Durchmusterung_ gives Vega the first and Arcturus the third rank among these three; but many eyes recognize rather a pre-eminence of Arcturus. My own impression has usually been that Arcturus looms larger than either Vega or Capella, but that Vega is the most penetratingly brilliant. It is very curious to notice the effect of the colors of these stars. The sharp blue ray in the light of Vega gives it a diamond-like quality which is lacking in Capella, whose light is white with just a suspicion of amber. Arcturus is a very pale topaz when high in the sky, and a ruddy yellow, sometimes flaming red, when near the horizon. It is a thrilling recollection of the writer’s early boyhood that he felt an undefined fear of Arcturus when seen rising ominously red and flashing through the leafless boughs of an apple orchard in the late evenings of February. All the ancients feared Arcturus for its supposed influence in producing storms and bad harvests. Arcturus is a sun of enormous magnitude, estimated all the way from one to six thousand times as great in luminosity as our sun. It is also travelling with great rapidity, its speed, according to some estimates, amounting to two or three hundred miles per second; but most of this is cross-motion with reference to us, its general direction being toward the south-southwest. If it is travelling three hundred miles per second, it would traverse the space between the sun and the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, in about three thousand years. We shall touch on Arcturus again when dealing with Boötes in the next chapter.