GEMINI
Gemini lies northeast of Taurus, and is outlined by a box-shaped figure something more than twenty degrees long and about five degrees wide. The two stars marking the end of it farthest from Taurus are the famous twins, Castor and Pollux.[3] Pollux is a first-magnitude star, and Castor is very little less bright. They are both very charming stars, and too conspicuous to escape easy identification. Castor is greenish in tint, and rises between an hour and a half and two hours later than Aldebaran. About fifteen minutes after he appears, Pollux, with a yellow-tinted face, comes up over the eastern horizon. They rise about thirty degrees north of the exact east. The ecliptic has reached its highest point north just after passing through the horns of Taurus. It then runs through Gemini in a southeasterly direction, curving diagonally across the main figure and passing five or six degrees below Pollux. Gemini can be seen from October to early June. It is particularly charming in May in the northwest just after sundown, and when any of the planets are going along this part of their path at that season, they are sure to win one’s interest and admiration.
CANCER
After leaving Gemini the ecliptic passes through the small constellation Cancer. Its way runs southeasterly for about twenty degrees, passing just south of a charming little cluster of stars which can be dimly seen with the unaided eye, but comes out brilliantly with an opera-glass. It is called Præsepe, or the Bee-hive, and is the only object to attract attention in Cancer. Fortunately, it is so situated as to mark the line of the ecliptic through the constellation. The Bee-hive rests almost exactly on the ecliptic.
LEO
Leaving Cancer, the sun enters Leo, a large, well-marked constellation known to many persons by the conspicuous figure in it of a sickle. At the end of the handle of the Sickle is Regulus, one of the bright first-magnitude stars. A little more than fifteen degrees east of the Sickle the rest of the constellation is marked by a large triangle formed by three rather bright stars. Both of these figures are well marked and easily seen, making Leo one of the easiest of the constellations to find. The sun crosses it in a southeasterly direction which leads straight across Regulus. The star is often occulted by the moon, and by the sun also, though that we cannot see on account of the blinding light of the sun.
Leo is visible nearly eight months in the year. It is in the eastern sky early in the evening in the winter, and shines all night from late in December until April. In May and June it is traveling westerly, but high up in the sky. In July it is in the western sky in the evening. The sun passes through it from August 7th to September 14th. Regulus is a white star, and twinkles violently, so that it is easily distinguished from any planet that is passing near it. In the other part of the constellation the path of the planets runs about ten degrees below the triangle.
VIRGO
When the sun has passed Leo it enters the largest of all the constellations, Virgo, and passes through it in forty-five days, from September 14th to October 29th. The constellation is far from rich in bright stars; but one may find the ecliptic, or path of the sun, by following a curved southeasterly line from Regulus about sixty-five degrees until it reaches Spica,[4] a very bright first-magnitude star in this comparatively starless region. If there is any doubt about Spica, it may be found by following the curve of the handle of the Big Dipper about thirty degrees, which brings one to the splendid Arcturus, and then about thirty degrees farther on, which points one to Spica.