ey announce a
change of weather, but they will not trouble us to-night.

Which way shall we look? Our eyes will answer the question for us.
However we may direct them, they instinctively return to the south, and
are lifted to behold Orion in his glory, now near the meridian and
midway to the zenith, with Taurus shaking the glittering Pleiades before
him, and Canis Major with the flaming Dog Star following at his heels.

Not only is Orion the most brilliant of all constellations to the casual
star-gazer, but it contains the richest mines that the delver for
telescopic treasures can anywhere discover. We could not have made a
better beginning, for here within a space of a few square degrees we
have a wonderful variety of double stars and multiple stars, so close
and delicate as to test the powers of the best telescopes, besides a
profusion of star-clusters and nebulae, including one of the supreme
marvels of space, the Great Nebula in the Sword.

[Illustration: MAP NO. 1.]

Our star map No. 1 will serve as a guide to the objects which we are
about to inspect. Let us begin operations with our smallest telescope,
the three-inch. I may remark here that, just as the lowest magnifying
power that will clearly reveal the object looked for gives ordinarily
better results than a higher power, so the smallest telescope that is
competent to show what one wishes to see is likely to yield more
satisfaction, as far as that particular object is concerned, than a
larger glass. The larger the object glass and the higher the power, the
greater are the atmospheric difficulties. A small telescope will perform
very well on a night when a large one is helpless.

Turn the glass upon beta (Rigel), the white first-magnitude star in
Orion's left foot. Observe whether the image with a high power is clear,
sharp, and free from irregular wisps of stray light. Look at the rings
in and out of focus, and if you are satisfied with the performance, try
for the companion. A good three-inch is certain to show it, except in a
bad state of the atmosphere, and even then an expert can see it, at
least by glimpses. The companion is of the ninth magnitude, some say the
eighth, and the distance is about 9.5", angle of position (hereafter
designated by p.) 199 deg..[1] Its color is blue, in decided contrast with
the white light of its great primary. Sir John Herschel, however, saw
the companion red, as others have done. These differences are doubtless
due to i