nised, because its chief
features are a brilliant yellowish first magnitude star, with one of the
second magnitude not far from it. The first magnitude star is Capella,
the other is [b] Aurigae. Lyra contains only one first magnitude
star--Vega, pale blue in colour. This star has a certain interest for us
from the fact that, as a consequence of that slow shift of direction of
the earth's axis known as Precession, it will be very near the north
pole of the heavens in some 12,000 years, and so will then be considered
the pole star (see Plate XIX., p. 292). The constellation of Lyra
itself, it must also be borne in mind, occupies that region of the
heavens towards which the solar system is travelling.

The handle of the Plough points roughly towards the constellation of
_Booetes_, in which is the brilliant first magnitude star Arcturus. This
star is of an orange tint.

Between Booetes and Lyra lie the constellations of _Corona Borealis_ (or
the Northern Crown) and _Hercules_. The chief feature of Corona
Borealis, which is a small constellation, is a semicircle of six small
stars, the brightest of which is of the second magnitude. The
constellation of Hercules is very extensive, but contains no star
brighter than the third magnitude.

Near to Lyra, on the side away from Hercules, are the constellations of
_Cygnus_ and _Aquila_. Of the two, the former is the nearer to the Pole
Star, and will be recognised by an arrangement of stars widely set in
the form of a cross, or perhaps indeed more like the framework of a
boy's kite. The position of Aquila will be found through the fact that
three of its brightest stars are almost in a line and close together.
The middle of these is Altair, a yellowish star of the first magnitude.

At a little distance from Ursa Major, on the side away from the Pole
Star, is the constellation of _Leo_, or the Lion. Its chief feature is a
series of seven stars, supposed to form the head of that animal. The
arrangement of these stars is, however, much more like a sickle,
wherefore this portion of the constellation is usually known as the
"Sickle of Leo." At the end of the handle of the sickle is a white first
magnitude star--Regulus.

The reader will, no doubt, recollect that it is from a point in the
Sickle of Leo that the Leonid meteors appear to radiate.

The star second in brightness in the constellation of Leo is known as
Denebola. This star, now below the second magnitude, seems to have been