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but a well defined team. The lower is the great sparkling blue-colored
Sirius, brightest star in the heavens. The higher is the less prominent
Procyon, a Greek name meaning "before the dog." Sirius was the fabled
dog that accompanied Orion. It is our brightest first-magnitude star;
being only nine light-years distant. Sirius has a companion star not
visible to the naked eye, of such mass that a pint of its matter would
weigh 25 tons.

There is a considerable stretch of sky between Procyon and the
next bright star of the south-Spica, known to dwellers of Arabia as
"The Lonely One." Spica's position can be determined by a line drawn
from Regulus, in the north, parallel to the handle of the Big Dipper.
West of Spica, with the upper two of four bright stars pointing to Spica,
is the constellation Corvus, under which the Southern Cross appears to
the eye south of the latitude of Palm Beach. At higher level, appears
Aquila which, according to Greek legend, was the eagle the god [sic]
Jupiter kept beside his throne. Aquila consists of three evenly-divided
stars with the brightest, steel-blue Altair, in the center. Jupiter's "eagle"
is easily located as the western apex of a great triangle formed with
Antares and the North Star.

The three stars of Aquila also point to Vega, to the north. A brilliant
blue star, it is the brightest north of the equator. A line extended eastward
from Vega reaches Deneb, the peak star of the constellation known as the
Northern Cross. In the broad zone between Deneb and the Pleiades, is
lonely Fomalhaut, riding low above the Southern horizon in autumn.