Uncle Henry added the lines with arrows to show how _Algenib_ and
_Algol_ are found, with the help of _Andromeda_.
After _Perseus_ was finished, Betty kept gazing at the sky. She seemed
fascinated, and finally asked,
"Uncle Henry, there's a perfectly lovely star just a little way in front
of _Perseus_, and three little ones near it. If I could name stars I
would call them 'the hen and chickens,' wouldn't you?"
All the children looked, and easily found the beautiful star. They
couldn't have missed it, and neither can you, for it is one of the most
brilliant in the sky and there are no others like it nearby.
"Yes," said Uncle Henry, "the big star and the three little ones do look
like a hen and her chickens. I would call them that, too, Betty, but
hundreds of years ago somebody named the bright star _Capella_, which
means 'the goat,' and called the three little stars 'the kids,' so you
see that they are named already."
"A kid is the baby of a goat, isn't it, Uncle Hen?" inquired Peter.
"Yes, that's the idea," said Uncle Henry, and went on, "Betty happens
to have picked out the brightest star in the last constellation we are
going to find. It is called _Auriga_, or the Charioteer. He hasn't his
chariot with him."
"How do we find _Auriga_?" inquired Paul.
"He is very plain, almost as plain as _Orion_ himself," said Uncle
Henry. "_Capella_ is at one corner of a five-sided figure, called a
'pentagon.' (32) It is also in the left shoulder of _Auriga_. Find the
tip of the left horn of _Taurus_, the Bull, and you will have another
corner of the pentagon, and at the same time the right foot of _Auriga_.
When you have those points it is easy to find the other three corners,
which are the right shoulder, left foot, and the right hand of _Auriga_.
He holds his whip in that hand. Even though he had to leave his chariot
when he went into the sky, he insisted on taking his whip along. It
comes in very handy, too, sometimes, when the two lions up there become
fretful and uneasy. When you have found _Auriga's_ shoulder stars, just
draw two lines upward to a star above and between them and you finish
the charioteer's skeleton. The star at the point where the lines cross
is in his head. See him, everybody?"
The children had no trouble in putting in the stars and drawing the
skeleton. Neither will you, for _Auriga_ is very conspicuous, and almost
straight overhead in the evening about Christmas time.
This is the way _Auriga_ looked on the blackboard:
[Illustration]
When the children had finished looking at _Auriga_, and _Capella_ the
Goat and her three babies, Betty drew herself up very straight and said,
trying to look very dignified,
"Mr. Chairman, I move that The Society of Star-Gazers give Uncle Henry a
note of thanks for giving us such an instructive, and--and--oh, we've
liked your Christmas present an awful lot, Uncle Henry!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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