Page:Field Book of Stars.djvu/149

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Motions of the Stars
127

he is so fortunate as to be able to identify these, and the spring group, he may turn his attention wholly to the eastern sky, where new constellations await him.

In the southeast he may see Virgo. In the east well up blazes Arcturus, the gem of Boötes, below which is the beautiful Northern Crown, with the diamond in the head of Serpens beneath it. Hercules is rising, and Vega in the Lyre should be seen just flashing on the view in the northeast.

This completes the list of wonders visible at this precise time, but the stars apparently are never still, and doubtless, while the student has been passing from one constellation to another in the western and southern skies, others have been rising in the east and northeast.

At ten p.m. the Lyre is well up, and Ophiuchus and Libra can be discerned. At midnight Scorpio and Cygnus are ready to claim the attention. By two o'clock a.m., Aquila, Delphinus, and Sagittarius have risen, and at break of day Andromeda, Pegasus, and Capricornus can be seen if the student has had the courage to remain awake this length of time.

In no way can the seeming movement of the stars be better understood than by actual observation. The observer must bear in mind that the movement is an apparent one: that it is the earth that is moving and not the stars. He has only to think of the analogy of the moving train beside the one that is standing still, and the true state of affairs will at once be evident.