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THE FIXED STARS

large telescope is required to bring out the magnificence of its form.

The corners of the constellation are marked by four stars. The brighter of the two uppermost,
Fig. 57.—Orion. Alpha Orionis, or Betelguese, is reddish in colour. At the opposite corner is Rigel, blue in colour and also of the first magnitude. The two upper stars are in the shoulders of the figure. Midway and above them a triangle of small stars forms the head.

East of Orion is Canis Minor, the Little Dog, containing Procyon, of the first magnitude. Below it and southeast of Orion is another collection of bright stars forming the constellation Canis Major, the Great Dog, containing Sirius, the Dog Star, the brightest fixed star in the heavens.


The Spring Constellations

The third position of the sphere, sidereal time twelve hours, occurs in February at two A. M.; in May at eight P. M. Lyra has now risen in the northeast and Capella is going downward in the northwest. The Milky

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