Scouting, Volume 8, Number 6, March 11, 1920 Page: 7
16 p. : ill. ; 31 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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SCOUTING, MARCH 11, 1920
(1) Imagine a line drawn from Rigel
to Betelgeuse and then another line just
as long extending to the west of the latter
at a little less than a right angle, and it
will end in a bright, rosy star, not so red
as Betelgeuse.
(2) What is the name of this star?
Write it on your chart.
(3) Can you see the figure V formed by
Aldebaran and four fainter stars? Sketch
the V and show where in it Aldebaran
belongs. This V-shaped constellation is
called the Hyades (Hy-a-dees).
(4) Imagine a line drawn from Orion's
belt to Aldebaran and extend it to not
quite an equal length beyond it, and it
will end near a fuzzy little bunch of stars
which are called the Pleiades?
(5) How many stars can you see in
the Pleiades?
(6) Why are they called the " seven
sisters " ?
(7) .How many stars in the Pleiades
are named and how many does photog-
raphy show that there really are in the
group ?
(8) How far apart from each other
are the nearest neighbors of the Pleiades?
(9) What do the astronomers think
about the Pleiades and why do they think
this?
Third Week
The Dog Stars—Sirius (Se-re-us) and
Procyon (Pro-se-on)
Story for Third Week
If you will draw a line from Alde-
baran through the belt of Orion and just
about as far on the other side, it will
reach the Great Dog Star (Canis Major)
following at Orion's heels. This is Sirius,
the most brilliant of all the stars in our
skies, and changing with ever changing
colors, sometimes blue, at others purple
or rosy or white; it is a comparatively
young star, and is estimated by Proctor
to have a diameter of about 12,000,000
miles, fourteen times that of our sun; it
is only eight and one-half light years
from us and it is the most celebrated
star in literature. The ancients knew
it, the Egyptians worshipped it, Homer
sang of it, and it has had its place in the
poetry of all ages. Preoyon, the Little
Dog Star (Canis Minor) so called per-
haps because it trots up the eastern skies
as our sun, and it is only ten light years
from us. It has a fainter companion
about three or four degrees to the north-
west of it. >
The Heavenly twins are two stars, set
like glowing eyes in a region of the sky
where there are no bright stars. They
are just a little closer together than the
" pointers" of the Big Dipper; and they
formed a pair to which the ancients gave
the names of Castor and Pollux. Pollux
is the brighter of the two and is the
most southward one. They are named
after two beautiful twin boys, who loved
each other so much that after they were
dead they were placed in the skies where
they could always be near each other.
The twin stars are supposed to exert a
benign influence on oceans and seas and
are beloved by sailors. Although they
seem to be near together they are really
separated by a space of which we can-
not conceive and are going in opposite
directions.
Questions on the Dog Stars
Purpose.—To learn to know and to find
the Dog Stars.
(1) After Orion is well up in the sky
a straight line drawn through and drop-
ping down to the eastern horizon and
about as far southeast from the belt as
Aldebaran is northwest, is the most
beautiful star in our skies, called Sirius,
the Great Dog Star.
(2) What color is Sirius and from its
colors what stage of development do you
think it is in?
(3) How large is Sirius as compared
with our sun?
(4) How near is it to us, and Why is
it called the Dog Star?
(5) Imagine a line drawn from Betel-
geuse to Rigel crossing Orion's belt,
then from Rigel to Sirius, and then try
to complete this square and you will find
a bright star that will almost make the
fourth corner, but it is just a little too
far away so that the figure thus formed
is somewhat kite-shaped instead of
square. This star is Procyon or the
Little Dog Star (Canis Minor).
(6) Which is the brighter, the Great
or the Little Dog Star?
(7) Do you see another fainter star
near Procyon?
(8) Why is Procyon called the Little
Dog Star?
(9) Note a pair of stars that shine like
two bright eyes about half way between
the bowl of the Big Dipper and Orion.
These are called the Heavenly Twins.
What do you know about them?
Spokane Council Fire—Around such fires, the story, and away from the fire, on such nights, the star study.
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 8, Number 6, March 11, 1920, periodical, March 11, 1920; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth283140/m1/7/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.