THE SOUTHERN SKIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 104, 4 May 1871, Page 2

THE S OUTHERN SKIES.

' (Communicated.) "jSet coujitetti the. ptars, and telleth them all by their names — Psalms for April 30. ' . Some of our observant -young readers must have noticed the, exceeding richness 'of 'our evening' skies in brilliant stars. First, Jfemcs will ha,ve attracted their' attention? 'large,' luminous, and lustrous,' Queen of the .altars, reigning, ia the West, Just after sunset; ' and no't tb ; puzzle our young friends, with astronomical phrases,we, will. dispense with "right ascension," &cl ; ' ah f d xiae" plain termsi Therefore near to Venus t raCh'er more to our right, will he,, .sepnr \Jumte!% wjip, -uptjil;Lthe la.te Wvßnii "6f V^ul.Uon'e^tn^finest^star in the'heayens, <but|now, r jbjf the side of thatfairer Planet 1 seems dwindled in size to our (^igfit.; Id T^lien; ; ! \ cifeacent moon redly gleams old fiery Mars, ': none'

can mistake his. bloody hue, Longfellow writes of him, and appoints him to the "first watch of the night." Between these four, two on each side, see the grand hero stands, the warrior Orion, How many thousand years has be woi-D his belt, still unbuckled; "ready, aye, ready," silently pointing a lesson to us. Bom of the imagination of the Northern hemisphere, he appears to us, with his head downwards, to the right of which are a pair of stars, Procyon and another, or Canis Minor, the Little Dogstar; and up above, beyond Orion's knees, bluely glitters Sirius and his accompanying star. Sirius, or Canis Major, is our nearest fixed star ; its scintillation is very constant and visible. Up, still up we go, in the same line towards the zenith, where we find Canopus the anchor star of the great heavenly ship. This Argo navis or ship Argo, is a large assemblage of small stars, supposed to represent an ancieut ship , with rigging, masts, and oars; and a little ideality will constitute the Southern Cross its figure-head, with the golden-shod feet of the Centaur acting as poiuters to the whole constellation. Rather later on in the evening wa/inay distinguish. Virgo rising over the' hills, with the lily wand in her band marked by that white star " Spica Virginig." And as the other planets pale away (not fade ; heavenly objects, never fad?, only earthly ones), it grows brighter and more conspicuous, and at the same hour we have Scorpio, Corona Australis, and Sagittarius. The last, right across the Milky- way in the rude form of the letter L, is Corona formed of three bright stars between Scorpio and Sagittarius, and Scorpio in the form of a heok. I hope I have not made my gossip too lengthy, or too intricate for my young readers, but I have lately heard many wishing for a few plain directions for telling some of the stars by their names. — Vega.