The children were disappointed, but they trusted Uncle Henry. He
wouldn't stop showing animals and people until he had to; they all knew
that.
Peter said,
"We'll have a whole dozen to look forward to next Christmas. Sort of a
present from Uncle Henry. Come on, Uncle Hen, let's find the eagle and
the sea goat and water carrier!"
The others agreed with Peter.
"The eagle, or _Aquila_," said Uncle Henry, "is easy to find because of
a very bright star, called _Altair_, which is right in his neck. You
will find it near the arrow, or _Sagitta_, between the end of the
serpent's tail and _Delphinus_. (17) Does anybody see _Altair_?"
"I do," said Betty, "it's right between two other stars that aren't so
bright."
"Right," said Uncle Henry. "Put down pebbles to represent all three,
Betty, and we'll find the rest of the eagle, or _Aquila_, as it would be
in Latin."
When the three pebbles were in place they stood in this relation to
_Sagitta_ and _Delphinus_:
[Illustration]
"Now," said Uncle Henry, "draw a line downward through the three stars
and a little more than twice as far again and what do you see?"
"Another star," said Paul.
"Put it in," said Uncle Henry, "and then draw another line from the
upper of the first three stars in the direction of the handle of the
'milk dipper' in _Sagittarius_, the archer. Continue this about four
times the length of the line that joins the first three stars together
and you will find two fairly bright stars close together. That's right,
Paul; put in the star you find about halfway down the line, too. Now
draw a line from the two fairly bright stars back in the direction of
the tail of the sea-horse, or _Delphinus_, until it almost meets the
first line you drew. There you will find another fairly bright star. Now
it is easy to finish the eagle's skeleton."
[Illustration]
When the eagle's skeleton was finished Peter thought it looked more like
a big arrowhead than an eagle, but when Uncle Henry had drawn the
outline of _Aquila_, the Society of Star-Gazers admitted the resemblance
to the bird.
"Now where's that sea goat?" inquired Peter.
"Follow the line of the first three stars we found in _Aquila_ downward,
and just a little way beyond where it ends in the tip of the eagle's
wing you will see two rather faint stars, close together. (18) They are
at one corner of a 'cocked hat' such as you make out of newspaper when
you play soldier--sort of a Napoleon's hat. It is upside down. When you
find it and put down pebbles for stars I'll show you how the good
imaginations the ancient people had turned the cocked hat into a sea
goat."
This shows how _Capricornus_ the sea goat looked when the children and
Uncle Henry had finished him. I leave it to you to decide whether or not
he looks more like a cocked hat.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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