NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY,
An Account of the relative Situations of the different Stars, by which the principal Constellations may be distinguished. From LA LANDE's Astronomy, third Edition, Art. 743, &c.
THE great Bear is a constellation, which is always visi
ble, it is easily known from the seven stars of which it con- tions visible at sists (see Pl. I, Fig. 1). Four of them are in the body and al times. three in the tail; and the two farthest from the tail a and Ursa Major. are called the pointers, because a line drawn from 6 to a, if produced, will pass on to the pole star, which is about as far from a as a is from 7. The convex side of the tail is turned toward the pole.
Cassiopeia is opposite to the great Bear, the polar star Cassiopeia. lying between them, so that if a line be drawn from ε Ursæ
• The following paper is a free translation of all that part of Mr. la Lande's work, which can be of most service to those, who have not the advantage of any astronomical instruments, by which they may measure angles, or take observations on the meridian. At the same time, however, that I endeavoured to render the meaning as precisely as I could, I thought myself at liberty to make any small alteration, which would more clearly point out the sense of the passage, or adapt it to the use of the English reader.