The seven bright stars of Ursa Major are familiar to nearly everyone. Two of them, called the Pointers, serve to direct the eye to the Polar star, which, though not a brilliant one, stands out prominently in a region comparatively bare of large stars. It is important to know the Polar star, as it is situated near the centre of the apparent motion of the firmament. When the student has assured himself as to the northern stars he will turn his attention southwards, and recognize the beautiful Orion and the curious groups in Taurus. He will also observe, much further east, the well-known sickle of Leo, and in time become acquainted with the many other constellations that make the winter sky so attractive. [Illustration: Fig. 60. The constellation Orion.] _The Constellation Figures._—The observer will soon realize that the creatures after which the constellations have been named bear no resemblance to the configuration of the stars they represent. If we look for a Bear amongst the stars of Ursa, for a Bull amid the stars of Taurus, or for a flying Swan in the stars of Cygnus we shall utterly fail to find it. The names appear to have been originally given, not because of individual likenesses between them and the star-groups to which they are applied, but simply on account of the necessity of dividing the sky into parts, and giving each a distinguishing appellation, so that it might be conveniently referred to. There were pressing needs for a system of stellar nomenclature, and the plan of grouping the stars into imaginary figures was the one adopted to avoid the confusion of looking upon the sky as a whole. There are some who object to the method of the Chaldean shepherds because the series of grotesque figures on our star-maps and globes bear no natural analogies. But it would be unwise to attempt an innovation in what has been handed down to us from the myths of a remote antiquity, for “Time doth consecrate, And what is grey with age, becomes religion.” [Illustration: Fig. 61. Diagram illustrating the Measurement of Angles of Position. (In measuring angles of position the larger star is always understood as central in the field. The north point is zero, and the angles are reckoned from this point towards the east. If a star has a faint component lying exactly east or following it, then the angle is 90°; if the smaller star is south, the angle is 180°; and so on.)]