Project Gutenberg's A Field Book of the Stars, by William Tyler Olcott

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Title: A Field Book of the Stars

Author: William Tyler Olcott

Release Date: March 9, 2007 [EBook #20769]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A FIELD BOOK
OF
THE STARS

BY

WILLIAM TYLER OLCOTT

_Second Edition, revised and enlarged_

WITH FIFTY DIAGRAMS

G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press

COPYRIGHT, 1907
BY
WILLIAM TYLER OLCOTT
COPYRIGHT, 1914
BY
WILLIAM TYLER OLCOTT
(For Second Edition)

[Illustration: The Knickerbocker Press, New York]

_Printed in the United States of America_

INTRODUCTION.

Considering the ease with which a knowledge of the constellations can
be acquired, it seems a remarkable fact that so few are conversant
with these time-honored configurations of the heavens. Aside from a
knowledge of "the Dipper" and "the Pleiades," the constellations to
the vast majority, are utterly unknown.

To facilitate and popularize if possible this fascinating recreation
of star-gazing the author has designed this field-book. It is limited
in scope solely to that purpose, and all matter of a technical or
theoretical nature has been omitted.

The endeavor has been to include in these pages only such matter as
the reader can observe with the naked eye, or an opera-glass.
Simplicity and brevity have been aimed at, the main idea being that
whatever is bulky or verbose is a hindrance rather than a help when
actually engaged in the observation of the heavens.

The constellations embraced in this manual are only those visible from
the average latitude of the New England and Middle States, and owe
their place in the particular season in which they are found to the
fact th