try a pocket-compass. This advice is by no means unnecessary, for there are many intelligent persons who are unable to indicate true north within many degrees, though standing on their own doorstep. Having found the north point as near as you can, look upward about forty degrees from the horizon, and you will see the lone twinkler called the north or pole star. Forty degrees is a little less than half-way from the horizon to the zenith.
By the aid of the map, again, you will be able to find, high up in the northeast, near the zenith, the large dipper-shaped figure in Ursa Major, and, when you have once noticed that the two stars in the outer edge of the bowl of the Dipper point almost directly to the pole-star, you will have an unfailing means of picking out the latter star here-after, when in doubt.[1] Continuing the curve of the Dipper-handle, in the northeast, your eye will be led to a bright-reddish star, which is Arcturus, in the constellation Boötes.
- ↑ Let the reader remember that the distance between the two stars in the brim of the bowl of the Dipper is about ten degrees, and he will have a measuring-stick that he can apply in estimating other distances in the heavens.
