Monoceros, the Unicorn, keeps them apart. The Hare and Noah’s Dove are on the other side of Canis Major. They are both south of Orion. In the Dove, a little out of the line half-way from Canopus to Sirius, is the pretty Phact. The five stars in a line between Canopus and Sirius are in Canis Major, the Great Dog Constellation.
What a gay show of stars between the Pole and Orion! But what a blank beyond to the right. I see one, however, opposite to Sirius, forming a parallelogram with it, the Belt, and Phact.
That is Zaurack, in the River Po; and the great space beyond that, to the right, far north of Achernar, is Cetus the Whale. The star Menkar or Menhab, a little north of Zaurack, is in the Whale’s head, while Diphda is in its tail. Achernar is about half-way from Diphda to the Pole. Between the two are the Chemical Furnace, the Sculptor, and the Phœnix.
I don’t care about these. Have you not nearly got round, father?
The last quarter of our circle lies between the Southern Crown and the Whale’s tail.
That will be north of the Peacock and Indian. What is the bright star between the Whale’s tail and Achernar?
The head of the Phœnix. And forming a triangle with it and the tail is the noble Fomalhaut of the Southern Fish, under the sign Pisces and near the toe of Aquarius. The Goat Capricornus is to the right of Fomalhaut.
Why, there is nothing hardly between Fomalhaut and the Crown.
Between the Peacock and the Crown are the two stars close together, forming the foot of Sagittarius, whose body stretches from the Crown to Capricornus; while the Crane and the Microscope lie between the Peacock and Fomalhaut.
It would require a good telescope to see that faint-looking Microscope.