CHAPTER IV
VIRGO AND HER NEIGHBORS
... "that region
Where still by night is seen
The Virgin goddess near to bright Boötes."—Poste's Aratus.
Following the order of right ascension, we come next to the little constellations Crater and Corvus, which may be described as standing on the curves of Hydra ([map No. 8]). Beginning with Crater, let us look first at α, a yellow fourth-magnitude star, near which is a celebrated red variable R. With a low power we can see both α and R in the same field of view, like a very wide double. There is a third star of ninth magnitude, and bluish in color, near R on the side toward α. R is variable both in color and light. When reddest, it has been described as "scarlet," "crimson," and "blood-colored"; when palest, it is a deep orange-red. Its light variation has a period the precise length of which is not yet known. The cycle of change is included between the eighth and ninth magnitudes.
While our three-inch telescope suffices to show R, it is better to use the five-inch, because of the faintness of the star. When the color is well seen, the contrast with α is very pleasing.
There is hardly anything else in Crater to interest us, and we pass over the border into Corvus, and go at once to its chief attraction, the star δ. The components of this beautiful double are of magnitudes three and eight; distance 24", p. 211°; colors yellow and purple.