New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-03-12

dieted that the ring Of Saturn win never j~ nvsss.
listed upon the body ri the pfanes 1ssf
The best telescopes disclose several divisiors =.
| the ring In the direction Of ia eiyeurafsres~s
From what has been said, u Vi evident ff,af MI
number Of these divisions Is limited or5y bv ~,
Il range 81 the telescope. Professor Pieres saIars
condition Of the ring. The definite Width of tis.sr
elementary rings, he remarks, x Ii 10 csrtsig
tent analogous 70 the definite size 81 tie drops 81
was diseernea by Professor Bend, 81 thu Cam
bridge Observatory, Mass, IN 1850, aItheugh It had
been indistnetly noticed but scarcely recognized
by DR.. Gall, Of Berlin, ID 1883, viz that The I'd.
most zone ~ the ring % ssmftrazsparent, admit
ting the surface Of the planet to through IL
| Mr. Robert Hunt In . lecture before the School
Of Mines. London, mentions . bcsutiful experiment
| illustrating how . revolving fn4ss mag svclse
ring, and how the ring may Be sustained after be-
4 ing thrown off. He states that If drop OF on be
introduced into mixture Of water and alcohol "
the same specific gravity as oil, will swim b he
very center Of the 1uid, perfect sphere. II into
a properly arranged glass box we pass . fine wire
through the sphere Of oil, and BY means Of .
handle cause the globuIc 10 revoiye slowly. the
sphere becomes an oblate spheroid; by increasing
tain rate of revolution It becomes disc, when q
ring of oil is thrown of from the central gebule,
and though separated By intervening water, It re-
wolves at precisely the same rate.
The thickness Of the ring Is estimated to be not
far from one hundred miles. In Consequence Of this
rbbonike structure, the ring will be invisible in
most telescopes when the edge Is presented to tho
observer; and this will be the case when the rela-
tive position Of Saturn and the earth d such that
the plane of the ring passes through the earth,
which will occur in tie planets equinox, ETC.,
twice in the course Of Saturniau year. The last
occurred in 1913. The epoch Of the NEXT ii ISgI-1
In the most powerful telescopes the edge Of the
ring remains visible throughout the equinox and
being somewhat more reflective Of the aolar light
than the body Of the planet, the edge appears -
burnsned thread Of silver drawn across The aSe q
the planet and the eight little satelites ~ many
of them as the atmospheric conditions admit 70 ~
seen, revolving in the plane of the ring arc seen "
pass directly upon this fiber Of light and, TO use An
illustration Of Sir John Hershers, 70 thread i me-
beads.
Saturn rises now about two hours and half after
Jupiter; and being, both, nearly in The eciptlc,
their decIinaton is not quite the same. This dney
ence is about seven degrees; i-e, saturn cuts fAe
meridian some seven degrees further south than
Jupiter.
now the conspicuous company OF Regulus, q fRe
star of the second magnitude, situated Ia the fore
quarter of the Lion and the ucida Of that eonstea
ton. IT is some six degrees to the northwest of
that star and ID gradually widening the interval in
its annual retr0grade motion. This retrogatien II
began on the 9th OF December, and will continue
| till the goth of April retracing in those four
months and eleven days an arc Of about degrees
After that it will resume its onward eastward ca
reer, rapidly recovering the lost ground, and adj
vancing in the course Of q tweIvemonth twelve
degrees clear or -thirtieth Of its grand orbtal
| journey. #
| The young student of the stars viii do wen 10
| watch from week to week these annual retr0grade
| movements of the exterior planets. It il cheap
method of getting practical acquaintance with
the true motions of the heavenly bodies; and BY
comparing together the arcs and periods of retro
graduation of the several planets affected with that
motion, viz: Mars, Jupiter and Saturn beside the
telescope planets, Uranus and Neptune, he viii b
lead by easy read to conception of the relative
| distances and periods of those planets.