Page:Astronomy for Everybody.djvu/344

constellation, Hercules. Alpha, its brightest star, is below the second magnitude and may be known by its reddish colour and by a white star, Alpha Ophiuchi, a little farther east. The most remarkable object in this constellation is the Great Cluster of Hercules which, to the naked eye, is a very faint patch, but which a great telescope resolves into a universe of stars.

Near the horizon, west of south, is the zodiacal constellation
Fig. 62.—Scorpius, the Scorpion. Scorpius, the Scorpion. Its western boundary is a curved row of stars forming the claws of the animal; east of them is Antares, or Alpha Scorpii, reddish in colour, and nearly of the first magnitude.

In the Milky Way, due south, and therefore east of Scorpius, is Sagittarius, the Archer, with quite a collection of stars of the second and third magnitudes. The bow and arrow of the archer are easily imagined.

Next toward the east are Capricornus and Aquarius, already mentioned. The brightest star in the former has a companion so close to it that it is a sign of not bad eyesight to be able to distinguish it.