Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-01-14
THE PLANET VENUS AND ITS SUPPOSED sA-
TELLITE.

We remember to have pointed out to avery young child
this beautiful planet when it shining alone in the
horizon after the set Of the The little girl
| claimed " Twinkle, twinkle little star!' How won
der what you are with childke curiosity express
ed in common nursery rhyme. 1t recalled the same
aspiration in the words Of mature and educated man
hoods Would to God the light Of that star would bring
with it something beside the knowledge Of the fact that
it is sphere revolving around the sun, at such dis
tancc and in such time!
Venus the morning and evening star the Lucifer and
Heperus of the ancients is the most conspicuous and
beautiful Of all the planets At the period Of its greatest
splendor it casts shadow and under favorable circu-
is at MONDAY shining then with the light of
| twenty stars Of the first magnitude.
The periodic time year of Venus is determined with
fractional exactness It's position as it was at certain
hour two thousand years ago. was recorded; its
place in the heavens at certain epoch Of the present
year is accurately determined Between which eposhs
many times this star has passed around in its orbit
The Of the observed positions though remote in
time must be small and the error divided by the many
orbal rounds fades away nothing Thus astronomers
know the year Of Venus be hundred and twenty
four days and seven hundred and housandhs of
a day.
Astronomy cannot thus accurately this planets
distance from the An Of observation here will
not fade away by being mingled with other observations
for oil the observations may be In sde and
the mean of them the truth than any single
measurement IS.
1t is that Keplers law to the aid Of science,
and says with authoritative voice If the Earth at its
period has distance of 95, ,298 260 miles, then We
at its period has distance of 6S 100000 miles.
But is the Earths distance 95 29S 260 miles? The
practical astronomer replies We know this distance is
not nnetyfve and half under ninety five mil
lions of miles. We can rely upon our measurements
uhin three-hundredh part of the distance. So the
mean distance Of Venus partakes of this acknowledged
| uncertainty within three -hundredth part.
| Instrumental measurement we do not consider
for the determination of the distances of
planet of which know the period. The year Of Venus
being 224 7o7 days. its dstances g. miles,
f without error in the process Of computation the mile
being 1.7920ths Of the earth's diameter.
Thus we have the period and mean distance Of this
planet accurately determined and believe its magni
tude or diameter be deduced with equal precision
DR.. Herschel considered the diameter of Venus to
be about 5000 miles, little than the Earth's
His son places its value 1900 miles, little less than
the Earths Prof. Hind says "the best observations
assign about 1900 miles"
The best observations then make the diameter Of We
nus to be the that Of the Earth for who sup
poses that could detect difference of 20
| miles of this diameter?
/ Why should astronomers hesitate moment this
subject The best observations make the Earth and Ve
worlds of and the same magnitude and
the human mind taught by repeated instances Of symme
try-of the nature ct conUenientd, does not
question the interesting result that these two planets Of
the solar system are exactly Of equal diameters
We now come to the rotation of Venus its axis The
face of this planet the sun, is too bright under
elescopc vision allow Of any precise knowledge Of the
subject, says o very competent astronomer.
We have given in another paper method for obtain
the axal periods of the planets By this method the
period for Venus is 80 hours without satellite and
| say 20 hours if there is attendant moon
The question, "has Venus satellite" :" is still OPEN
For this assertion we have n conversaion the authority
of two eminent American astronomers.
The difficulty Of detecting satellite, if one exists,
from the fact that its enlightened side never be
fully turned towards excepting when the planet is be-
yond the sum- at its greatest distance from the earth
And according to Mr. Gregory, satellite may exist and
not be easily usually seen because of unfness of its
surface reflect the light Of the is the case par
ally) with moon which has dark spots on its sur
face Could there be discovery interesting and
one more honorable to American science than to discover
the lost satellite of Venus We say the lost satellite for
why should not Venus have moon being of equal dia-
meter with the Earth which has attendant star? We
may depend upon that analogy between these sister
worlds is not confined to their maG nitudes.
We will not follow up the train Of mathematical reason
ing that deepens in minds the impression that Venus
has its moon has been Cassni in 1872, observed
little star about threeths of Venus's diameter in dis
tance from Venus Ithad the phase its primary
1t was one quarter large And remember reader that
our moon is quarter of the diameter Of the Earth
| Mr. Short very eminent optician, in 1740 saw the
satellite He describes it thus It's light is not bright
and vivid, but its disc was clear and well-defned."
In 17G1 Mr. Montaigne the satellite for four
sire Evenings 1t had the phase Of Venus 1t changed its
position relatively the planet Mr. Montagne gave
it the same diameter Cassin Of that
Of the planet.
In the month Of March, 1764 the satellite seen by
several astronomers. And note this: it seen from
places widely different from each other Rodkier and
Horrebow at Copenhagen with refracng telescope, and
Montbarron at Auxerre with Gregorian reflector, re-
peatedy saw the between the Sd and 29h of that
month It's diameter estimated, before, at
fourth OF the diameter Of its primary.
Professor Lambert collected oil the observations to-
rether and from them he deduced pretty consistent
orbit" According Lambert its period Of revolution is
Id 5h 13m. and its distance 255, 900 miles
$40 900 miles is the distance Of the from
globe and II Venus has satellite, it must be,
well convinced distant thirty Of the dameters Of it's
primary.
The satellite of Venus has not been by the astro
of this century; and because seen by them