f water
represented by dim stars in pairs and groups of three stars, to
descend, ending in the bright star Fomalhaut, the mouth of the
Southern Fish.
A rough map of South America can be traced in the stars [th], [l],
[t], [d], 88, [i].
A rude dipper can be made out in the western part of the
constellation, formed of the stars [a], [b], [n], [e].
The stars [t] and [z] are doubles. Of the former pair, one is white,
the other orange in color. Fomalhaut was the object of sunrise worship
in the temple of Demeter at Eleusis in 500 B.C. The ancients called
this region of the sky "the Sea."
In the vicinity of [d], Mayer observed in 1756 what he termed a fixed
star. Herschel thought it a comet. It proved to be the planet Uranus.
[z] is almost exactly on the celestial equator.
[l] is a red star, the most prominent of the first stars in the
stream. The stars in Piscis Australis can be traced out with an
opera-glass.
Fomalhaut and Capella, in Auriga, rise almost exactly at the same
minute.
Fomalhaut is one of the four "royal stars" of astrology. The others
are Regulus, Antares, and Aldebaran.
[Illustration: AQUARIUS]
CAPRICORNUS (kap-ri-k[^o]r'-nus)--THE SEA GOAT. (Face Southwest.)
LOCATION.--A line drawn from [a] Pegasi through [z] and [th] in the
same constellation, and projected about 25[deg], strikes [a] and [b] in
Capricornus.
This constellation contains three principal stars--[a] and [b]
mentioned above, and [d] about 20[deg] east of them.
The water jar of Aquarius is about the same distance northeast of [d]
Capricorni that Fomalhaut, in the Southern Fish, is southeast of it.
[a] has a companion which can be seen by the naked eye. It is a fine
sight in an opera-glass. These two stars are gradually separating.
[b] is a double star, one being blue, the other yellow.
The constellation resembles a chapeau, or peaked hat, upside down.
The stars in the head of the Sea Goat, [a] and [b] are only 2[deg] apart,
and can hardly be mistaken by an observer facing the southwestern sky
during the early evening in autumn.
Five degrees east of [d] is the point announced by Le Verrier as the
position of his predicted new planet, Neptune.
Flammarion claims that the Chinese astronomers noted the five planets
in conjunction in Capricornus, in the year 2449 B.C.
The sign of the Goat was called by the ancient Orientalists "The
Southern Gate of the Sun."
[Illustration: CAPRICORNUS]
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