Zodiac!—It sounds to the untrained ear like the password of a bomb-thrower or a first cousin to a dish of Hungarian goulash.

It is enough, albeit, to scare even a Scout away from the stars, but be not afraid, for it can’t hurt you and you can’t eat it.

On the other hand, if you are on speaking terms with the zodiac (pronounced zo´-di-ak), it will help you to find the planets and at the same time you will add enough new constellations to those you already know to give you a high passing mark for a merit badge in the Boy Scouts if you want one. Besides, the signs and constellations of the zodiac will aid you to use the almanac and help you in many other ways.

You have often noticed that the Sun seems to travel through the sky over a path or belt that is always the same from west to east; you must have noticed, too, that the path of the Moon is almost the same as that of the Sun, but you may or may not remember that the planets also travel over the same path as the Sun and Moon.

It is just as though the Sun, Moon and planets moved at different speeds on an endless belt in the sky which runs round the Earth nearly in a line with its equator, though tilted at a slight angle to it, and this line is called the ecliptic. The way the ancients thought it was and the way it really looks to us is shown in Fig. 170.

The ancients called this apparent path of the Sun, Moon and planets with the stars for a background the zodiac, so it is not such a horrible specimen after all.

We know, of course, that the Sun is the center of our solar system and that the planets, including the Earth and Moon, are at various distances from the Sun and that each moves in a path, or orbit, of its own, making a small angle with the ecliptic. What we call the Zodiac takes in all these orbits and is, therefore, a belt of considerable width through the center of which runs the ecliptic.

Suppose we draw a little circle and call it the Sun, as shown in Fig. 171, and draw an ellipse around it and call it the Earth’s orbit, putting on another little circle for the Earth; now suppose we draw a much larger ellipse round the one representing the Earth’s orbit, divide it into 12 parts and put a constellation in each part.

Knowing now that the Sun, Moon and planets are very near the Earth when compared with the fixed stars it must be plain that these bodies when seen from the Earth, which is always changing its position in its travels round the Sun, would appear to move in and across the constellations.

Take a look at Jupiter some night when he is moving across any of the constellations and he will seem to be a part of it; this is the reason we speak of the Sun or a planet as being in a certain constellation at a given time.

The stars forming the background of the Moon and the planets can always be seen, for we are then looking at them from the dark side of the Earth, but they cannot be seen when they form the background of the Sun, for the stars are on the other side of him when he gets between us and them and he shines in our eyes.

These constellations through which the Sun, Moon and planets seem to pass, or as the almanacs say are in, lie in a belt formed by the path of the Sun and neither the Moon nor the planets ever get farther from the path of the Sun than 8 degrees on either side of him and this belt is called the zodiac.

The belt, or zodiac, is divided into 12 equal parts, or spaces, which were called signs by the ancients and they are still called signs. This makes the length of each sign, or space, 30 degrees, and hence the 12 signs, which are called the Signs of the Zodiac, equal 360 degrees or a complete circle. (See Chapter X, The Time o’ Day.)

The Signs of the Zodiac and the constellations of the Zodiac have the following names: Aries, the Ram; Taurus, the Bull; Gemini, the Twins; Cancer, the Crab; Leo, the Lion; Virgo, the Virgin; Libra, the Balance; Scorpio, the Scorpion; Sagittarius, the Archer; Capricornus, the Goat; Aquarius, the Water Bearer, and Pisces, the Fishes. It is in one of these constellations that the Sun, Moon and planets are always to be found.

A good way to find any one of the constellations is by knowing the time when it will be on your meridian, that is the line over your head due north and south, during a given month. Any constellation of the zodiac will be on your meridian at 9 o’clock P. M., during the month given opposite its name in the following table:

To find any constellation during any other month than that given in the last column above subtract two hours for each following month. Suppose you want to find Aries, the Ram, in January instead of December, look for it on your meridian at 7 P. M.; in February look for it at 5 P. M., and so on.

You will of course come to a month where the constellation will run into daylight and then you won’t be able to see it again until the Earth has traveled round the Sun to a point where the Earth is again between the Sun and the constellation.

The constellations of the zodiac are shown in Fig. 172; also the symbol for each sign and the month in which the sun enters the sign. As we shall later explain, the constellation is no longer in the sign of the same name.

If you look southward at the sky some night for any particular constellation you need not expect the stars which form it to stand out separate and distinct, as shown in Figs. 172 and 174; if you do you will be sadly disappointed, for many of the constellations of the zodiac are hard to recognize compared with the Big Dipper, or Orion, or Pegasus.

Nor are the constellations of the zodiac as equally spaced in the sky as in Figs. 172 and 174. Some of the stars are very scattered and stretch over part of two signs of the zodiac, while others do not take up nearly all the space allowed them; Figs. 172-174 are but rough sketches. To recognize these constellations you will have to use a good star map.

The heavy black line drawn lengthwise through the middle of the strip in Fig. 172 represents the line of the ecliptic which is the yearly path the Sun seems to take. The planets also take the same course, though they may be on one side or the other of the Sun’s path by 8 degrees, thus making the zodiac 16 degrees wide; hence, the lighter parallel lines on either side of the black line, or path of the Sun, is the farthest away that the planets ever get.

If you were to cut the strip of paper, Fig. 172, out of the book and paste the ends together, you would have a band, or circle representing the zodiac more nearly as it is; but instead of cutting the book you had better draw the signs and constellations on a strip of cardboard 2 inches wide and 24 inches long and glue the ends together, as shown in Fig. 173; you will now have a zodiac with which you can do a little experimenting.

Place a candlelight in the center of the cardboard ring and suspend a marble from a thread, by means of a drop of sealing wax, and let the marble hang between the light and the cardboard zodiac. As seen from the marble, which represents the earth, the candle, representing the sun, is in the constellation directly opposite the one in which the shadow of the marble falls.

In the almanacs our year begins with January and as the Sun is then in the sign Aquarius, this month is represented by a picture of Aquarius, the Water Bearer; but in marking out the signs of the zodiac on a flat strip of paper we begin with Aries, which the Sun enters in the month of March, and read them from right to left.

The reason for this is because the Earth travels round the Sun counter-clockwise as seen from the north and this makes the Sun appear to move eastward through the constellations of the zodiac.

This makes all the months follow each other in the proper order when the strip of paper is glued together, as shown in Fig. 173, or when the constellations are arranged in a circle, as shown in Fig. 174.

This latter diagram shows plainly that when the Earth is at that part of its orbit marked A the constellation of Taurus is back of the Sun. If we are on that side of the Earth which is toward the Sun of course we cannot see Taurus for the Sun, which is shining in our eyes.

Still Taurus is the background of the Sun just the same, and so when the almanac says the Sun is in Taurus you will know that the Sun is directly between the Earth and Taurus.

The same thing is true of all the planets. Take Mars, for example; whenever Mars is in that part of its orbit so that we can see it at night, as shown at B, Fig. 172, we also see the constellation back of it—in this case it is Libra, the Balance—and since a planet and a fixed star look exactly alike to the naked eye it is easy to think of Mars as being in that constellation; and it is the same with all the other planets.

The Constellations of the Zodiac.—The Constellations of the Zodiac and the Signs of the Zodiac are two very different things. Long ago, when the zodiac was invented, the constellation of Aries, the Ram, was in the first of the 12 spaces and he and the sign of this space were of course at that time the same.

Owing to a peculiar motion of the Earth, called precession, the signs of the zodiac have moved backward during the last 2,000 years and the sign of Aries, which used to be in the constellation of Aries, is now in the constellation of Pisces, the Fishes.

Aquarius, the Water Man.—A constellation of autumn: Aquarius is always pictured in the almanacs as pouring water from a pitcher.

All the stars of this constellation are faint and scattered and none of them are in a line with the ecliptic. Aquarius got his name from the Romans, who called him the Waterman because when the Sun enters the sign Aquarius in January there are usually heavy rains in Italy and in the long ago people thought the stars had a lot to do with the weather, and everything else on Earth, for that matter.

Pisces, the Fishes.—This constellation is now in that part of the zodiac whose sign is ♈ (Aries). It is not an interesting constellation to look at with the naked eye, for its stars are faint and they stream out in two lines over nearly two signs of the zodiac.

But Pisces is none the less a very important constellation because it is at one of the points where the line of the equator crosses the line of the ecliptic.

When the Sun crosses the point where the equator and the ecliptic meet the days and nights are then equal at all places on the Earth, and hence we call this time of the year, which is about the twenty-first of March, the equinox, which means equal days; or the vernal equinox, which means equal spring days.

Aries, the Ram.—This constellation used to be in that part of the zodiac whose sign is ♈ (Aries) but is now in that part whose sign is ♉ (Taurus).

The position of Aries in the sky is shown in Fig. 175 and you can easily find him by drawing a line from the North Star to Alpha in Pegasus and another line at right angles to the first line until you come to two bright stars quite close together and a third one not quite so bright. These are the chief stars of the constellation of the Ram.

Taurus, the Bull.—This constellation is now in the sign ♊ (Gemini), of the zodiac. In Chapter II you will find directions for locating Taurus. You will remember that the red star Aldebaran forms the right eye of the Bull. The little group of stars called the Hyades is the Bull’s face and the Pleiades are in his shoulder.

Gemini, the Twins.—It is easy to see why the ancients called this constellation of the zodiac the Twins, for its two chief stars, Castor and Pollux, are quite close together and while of different colors they are of about the same brightness.

These two stars are the heads of the Twins and four other stars are their feet and these stand forever on the Milky Way. The Twins are easily found since they are next to Taurus, the Bull.

Gemini is an important constellation, as the Sun reaches its most northern point in it in summer; this is called the summer solstice, and takes place about June 21. When the Sun has reached this point it casts the shortest shadow at mid-day and it seems to stand still for a few days before it takes its downward course. The summer solstice is halfway between the two points of the equinox.

Cancer, the Crab.—This is a small constellation of dull stars that is chiefly interesting because it once contained the point of the summer solstice, but that was ages ago.

The only thing about Cancer to attract attention is a hazy patch of light called the Manger. On each side of the Manger is a fairly bright star and this pair of stars is called the Ass’s Colts; they will help you to find Cancer.

The Manger has often been mistaken for a comet by those who lit upon it with the naked eye, but it is really a cluster of small stars.

Leo, the Lion.—There are two separate groups of stars that make up this king of beasts. The first group takes the shape of a sickle and the other the form of a square. The sickle, which is formed of six bright stars, is Leo’s head and shoulders, and the four stars of the square make up his hindquarters.

Two lines, drawn from the Big Dipper across the sky, as shown in Fig. 176, will meet the sickle and the square.

The very bright star in the end of the handle of the sickle is Regulus, which means little king, and far to the other side of the constellation right in the end of the Lion’s tail is another bright star called Denebola.

Virgo, the Virgin.—This constellation is of interest, because the Sun again crosses the point where the equator and ecliptic meet, and the days and nights are again of the same length everywhere on the Earth, just as they were at the spring, or vernal equinox.

But this time, when the Sun is in Virgo, it crosses the equator from north to south about September 21 and so this equinox is called the autumnal equinox, which means equal autumn days.

By drawing a line from Polaris through Mizarin through the handle of the Big Dipper and producing it beyond Arcturus, and on until it reaches a big, bright, white star you will have reached Virgo, as shown in Fig. 177. This big, white, bright star is Spica, and it is the chief star in Virgo.

The ancients always represented Virgo, the Virgin, with a sheaf of wheat in one hand and a sickle in the other. The Virgin and the harvest always went together in the minds of the ancients and this accounts for the pictures of Virgo in the almanacs of the present time.

Libra, the Balance.—A small constellation named for the ancient Roman pound weight.

The constellation of Libra is not nearly as old as the others in the zodiac, in fact it is thought that there were only eleven constellations in the zodiac when they were first mapped out thousands of years ago, although there were twelve signs or spaces in the zodiac. Its position is shown in Fig. 178.

Then in the days of the Roman Empire, about 300 years before Christ, some genius clipped the claws of the Scorpion and made its stars into a pair of scales. This was a very clever idea, for the autumnal equinox then took place in this sign of the zodiac, and the stars in this sign were given the name of Libra, as the equal days and nights called to mind the balance.

Scorpius, the Scorpion.—A summer constellation. If Libra takes up only a small part of one sign of the zodiac Scorpius makes up for it by nearly covering two signs.

To the old astrologers, Scorpius was the “power of darkness” and the “accursed constellation,” and when they cast their horoscopes they attributed to it “woe and discord, war and disease.”

The constellation of Scorpius is one of the very few which really looks its part. In the end of its curved tail there are two stars which are ready to sting if he ever strikes, but he has never struck yet.

The heart of the Scorpion is a big, bright red star called Antares, which means the rival of Mars, and when Mars is in the constellation of Scorpius it is hard to tell them apart.

Antares will prove useful in finding the Scorpion as there are no other bright stars in that part of the sky. The position of Scorpius is shown in Fig. 178.

Sagittarius, the Archer.—A summer constellation: It is made up of many stars which can be seen with the naked eye and is always pictured in the almanacs as a centaur, or man-horse, shooting an arrow from a bow at the heart of the Scorpion.

Sagittarius is a fine constellation, right in the path of the Milky Way, and this makes it easy to find. There are several interesting things in this constellation and among them are the clusters of stars and nebulæ.

Then there are seven stars in Sagittarius, which make a little dipper turned upside down, and because it is in the Milky Way it is called the milk dipper; when you once find it, you will never be able to see Sagittarius again without seeing the milk dipper.

The winter solstice, that is, the most southern point which the Sun reaches, lies halfway between the constellations of Scorpius and Sagittarius and also between the two stream lines of the Milky Way.

When the Sun reaches this point, which is the 20th of December, the noonday shadows are the longest and the Sun seems to again stand still until Christmas, when he will begin to move north once more.

Capricornus, the Sea-Goat.—A constellation of autumn: On the same plan that the ancients made Sagittarius a man-horse, so they made Capricornus a goat-fish.

Though Capricornus is a small and poor constellation when viewed with the naked eye, the early astrologers thought more of him than all the other constellations of the zodiac put together.

While the stars of Capricornus do not look anything like a sea-goat, he can be easily found by drawing a line from Vega in Lyra to Altair in Aquila and producing it until you come to the zodiac as shown in Fig. 179.

The two brightest stars of Capricornus are in his head. One of these stars is a naked eye double, but to many people it will seem merely a single star. As a matter of fact it is a fine sight test, for it takes a pair of mighty good eyes to separate them. Another bright star of the sea-goat is in his fishlike tail.

We have journeyed clear around the great circle which the Sun travels every year, and we are back again to Aquarius, the constellation we started from, having covered all the constellations of the zodiac.

The Signs of the Zodiac.—Where the signs of the zodiac are used in almanacs they do not mean the constellations of the same name at all, but the spaces or parts of the great circle which form the zodiac.

Two thousand years ago the constellations and the signs of the same name were in the same spaces or parts of the zodiac, but the signs, by precession, have shifted over one space to the west since that time, while the constellations have of course remained unchanged, and this has made a good deal of confusion.

It’s a pretty skillet of fish, this mixing of the signs and constellations of the zodiac, but you will get used to it just as easily as you get used to carrying water when in camp or washing dishes.

How to Read the Almanac.—If you were asked to find the date of any day of any month of the year you would simply look at a calendar and find it in a jiffy.

Now, long before calendars came into general use the almanac was freely consulted, not only for learning days and dates, but for much more useful information, such as finding the dates of eclipses, the beginning of seasons, the rising and setting of the Sun, Moon and planets and the conjunctions and oppositions of these bodies, planting potatoes and the year the father of your country was born.

To read an almanac easily you should learn the following signs:

Conjunction.—When this sign is used it means that two planets, or the Sun and a planet, or the Moon and a planet, are on the same side of the Earth.

Opposition.—When this sign is used it means that two planets, or the Sun and a planet, or the Moon and a planet, are on opposite sides of the Earth.

To see how these signs work out suppose you look up the month of January, 1915, in an almanac.

The first line, besides showing that it is the first day of the year, the first day of the month and that it is Friday, also shows that the ○ (Moon) is full. It further gives the time the ☉ (Sun) rises and sets, the length of the days in hours and minutes, the ○ (Moon’s) age in days, and when it rises and sets.

Then on the same line the following signs are given: ♂ ☿ ☌ and this means that a conjunction of Mercury and Mars will take place on this date; that is, that they will be nearer to each other from our line of sight than at any other time for a long while.

On the next line, which is the 2nd of January, the following signs are given: ♀ greatest brilliancy; ♁ in perihelion ☌ ♆ ☾; the first of which means that Venus has reached its greatest brightness; the second, that the Earth is the nearest to the Sun that it will get, and the third, that there is a conjunction of Neptune and the Moon; and so on for every day of the year.

Note: A good almanac for daily star information is the Old Farmers’ Almanac, a copy of which you can get by sending 11 cents to William Ware and Company, Boston, Mass.