=The Constellations of the Zodiac.=--The _Constellations of the Zodiac_ and the _Signs of the Zodiac_ are two very different things. Long ago, when the zodiac was invented, the constellation of Aries, the Ram, was in the first of the 12 spaces and he and the _sign_ of this space were of course at that time the same. Owing to a peculiar motion of the Earth, called _precession_, the signs of the zodiac have moved backward during the last 2,000 years and the sign of Aries, which used to be in the constellation of Aries, is now in the constellation of Pisces, the Fishes. [Illustration] =Aquarius, the Water Man.=--A constellation of autumn: Aquarius is always pictured in the almanacs as pouring water from a pitcher. All the stars of this constellation are faint and scattered and none of them are in a line with the ecliptic. Aquarius got his name from the Romans, who called him the _Waterman_ because when the Sun enters the sign Aquarius in January there are usually heavy rains in Italy and in the long ago people thought the stars had a lot to do with the weather, and everything else on Earth, for that matter. [Illustration: FIG. 175.--CONSTELLATIONS OF ARIES THE RAM.] =Pisces, the Fishes.=--This constellation is now in that part of the zodiac whose sign is ♈ (Aries). It is not an interesting constellation to look at with the naked eye, for its stars are faint and they stream out in two lines over nearly two signs of the zodiac. But Pisces is none the less a very important constellation because it is at one of the points where the line of the equator crosses the line of the ecliptic. When the Sun crosses the point where the equator and the ecliptic meet the days and nights are then equal at all places on the Earth, and hence we call this time of the year, which is about the twenty-first of March, the _equinox_, which means equal days; or the _vernal equinox_, which means equal spring days. [Illustration] =Aries, the Ram.=--This constellation used to be in that part of the zodiac whose sign is ♈ (Aries) but is now in that part whose sign is ♉ (Taurus). [Illustration] The position of Aries in the sky is shown in Fig. 175 and you can easily find him by drawing a line from the North Star to _Alpha_ in Pegasus and another line at right angles to the first line until you come to two bright stars quite close together and a third one not quite so bright. These are the chief stars of the constellation of the Ram. [Illustration] =Taurus, the Bull.=--This constellation is now in the sign ♊ (Gemini), of the zodiac. In Chapter II you will find directions for locating Taurus. You will remember that the red star Aldebaran forms the right eye of the Bull. The little group of stars called the _Hyades_ is the Bull’s face and the Pleiades are in his shoulder.