THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY.

THE northern heavens (map, p. 56) present no change of special importance since last month. The Dragon has been carried away from his former hovering position, and now appears as if swooping downward, though in a direction contrary to that of his real motion around the pole. The ancient observers do not seem to have attached any importance, by the way, to the direction in which the star-sphere turns; and, indeed, a motion so slow as not to be perceptible by ordinary vision might well be left out of account in forming imaginary star-groups. Some of the figures go forward, as Orion, the Great Bear, Boōtes (the Herdsman), the Lion, and so forth; others go backward, as the Dragon, the Ram, the Bull, Pegasus (the Winged Horse), and so on; while others, like Ophiuchus (the Serpent-bearer), are supposed to face the observer and so travel sideways; and others again, travel on their head, as Hercules, Cepheus, and Andromeda. It is quite clear that those who invented the constellation figures did not trouble themselves much about the rotation of the star-vault.

There may be noticed in the northern heavens, as seen in February, a vacant space above the pole, girt round by the constellations Auriga (the Charioteer) overhead, Perseus (the Rescuer), Cassiopeia (the Seated Lady), Cepheus (her royal husband), and the two Bears. In this poverty-stricken region there are no stars of the first three magnitudes, and only four or five of the fourth magnitude. The ancient