An introduction to astronomy: designed as a text-book for the use of students in college. By Denison Olmsted ...

next (Zeta).Jiz1alr, and the last (Eta).RBent asc/ti. T'llcse are
all 1righllt fand bbeautiful stars, Alpha being of tile first mannittudle; et-ia, Ganla, l)lta, of tihe secondl; and the three formlint the tail, of t)he tllirdl. But it must be remarlked that thlls
very rcmarkable fi] gure of a dipper or ladle colmposes but a
sinall part of thle entirti collstellatio l, being merely tle ]illdcer
half of the body and the tail of the 13ear.'lelm ltead anltl breast
of tlte -itlrc, lyingt about tel orl twelve dcrrccs wtest of the
PointeCrs, contain a great numbler of rminute stars in a trialngiular grioup. Onle of thte fourth mlagnit ude, Omilicrotn, is il tlte
loutll of t1he Bear. Thle e feet of thell figure limay be looked for.about 15. south of tltose alrealy described, tlhe two hilder
paws consisting each of two stars very similar in apl)car'alc,
tand only a (legree anld a lhalf apart. The two paws are distant
fTrom eachl otler about 1.0; andl fotiNllowin \Yestwaird about the
same number of degreets, we come to anothellr ver1'y Similar pair
of stars, wtich constitute one of tle fore palws, the otherl foot
beillt, Wit llout (any corresponding 1air.
1n a clear winter's8 night, wh\en tile whole constellation is
above the pole, thles tcvarious parts llmay be easily recogtlizel,
and tlhc etntire figure will be sccn to resemble a largre a!timnal,
1e1eadrily accounting for the namle ogiven to tllis constellation
fi'om tlhe earliest ages.
II)lxeo (tle Il)1mIoON) is also a very large constellation, cxtclndint, fnor' a l'reat Ilenthl fi'om l east to west. le at
thle tail wVlhiell lies half way between thte I'ointtes and the Wolestar, anll windinog rounlld between tle Great and the Little
Bear, by a continued succession of bright stars fromn 5~ to 100
aslundler, it coils around under tte ieet of the L-ittle Bcat
swee:1ps round the pole of the ecliptic, a(l terminates ill a
tralpeziul forinced bly four conspicuous stars, f'rom t;llirty to
tlhirty-five degtrees fromll the Nort1t Pole. At few of thle iel —
bers of this constellation are of tllhe second, but tle greater part
of the tlird magnitude, and below it.
4 1". Witlt the constellations already deseribcd as general
landmartkls, we ay iow proceed withl each of thle principal
remainiing ones, by stating its bountht/aieq, as we do(10 tose of
countries in'CeogCrap)i iy; tlheir relative situations being tlihus
first learned frolm a nmap, or (what is better) from a celestial