The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-09-10

of them shed their silvery rays upon
him during all hours of his night. 1t is
more likely that his night is lighter and
more brilliant and more lovely than his
day, from the fact that his rings lie
obliquely to the sun, so that the rays of
light striking on the eoncave side re-
feet back upon his surface with
twenty-fold moreforce than the rays of
light which strike him directly, making
it more than probable that upon each
and every portion of his vast surface it
is one continuous midsummer day.
This immense sphere, a thousand times
larger than our earth, beautified and IL
Illuminated by seven silvery moons and
as many luminous rings, which contin-
uously cover him with flood of light,
whirls through his grand orbit of over
five millions of miles, obedient to the
will of the Great Creator of the universe.
This was the great evil planet in ancient
astrology.
Still beyond Saturn, in circle still
more remote, so far that the human
eye, unaided by the telescope, has never
seen him, is another large planet, whose
diameter is about thirty-five thousand
miles, and whose distance from the sun
is nearly two thousand millions of
miles. His orbit is so great that, though
he travels at the rate of more than three
thousand miles every hour, it requires
him nearly eighty-six years to perform
one revolution round the sun; that is,
one of his years equals nearly eighty-six
years of ours, and though he has yet
completed but one revolution since first
discovered by DR.. Herschel, his time
has been computed as accurately as
though he had been in the same orbit
with the earth. This planet is COM
monty called Herschel, after his illus
trious discoverer, but was by that gen.
tleman named Uranus, and is now
known in the science of astronomy by
that name. He is attended in his course
by six moons, and, stranger than all,
these moons have a retrograde move
ment; that is, while the planet revolves
from west to east, like our earth, these
moons revolve round him from east to
west, contrary to the revolution of any
and all planets of our system. What ef-
feet, if any, this movement has upon
his surface and seasons astronomy has
not yet revealed. He cuts no figure in
astrology, suppose from the fact that
the ancients knew nothing of his exist
h. kk,ioI~,,ooo Of OF
is estimated to be about four hundred
miles.
We have now gone through with all
the planets of our system save one
Neptune-and as one of the wonders oi
the science of astronomy, the remarka'
BILE circumstance of his discovery may
be noticed. The motions of the planet
Herschel could not be satisfac torily ex'
planned by astronomers. The attraction
of every planet belonging to our system
was calculated, and had proved correc
in respect to all other planets, but failed
with Herschel. There was some dis
turbing influence acting upon this
planet, which would not allow him tC
! | OO CdICuldLGu ny Lu0 Sdlu0 Iul6s 1t
Verrier, an astronomer of Paris, in
1916, determined to investigate these
Irregularities. He, therefore, together
with lady flor some woman seems
always to have something to do with
all great achievements), first caleu.
lateI the disturbing influence of al
! known planets in our system, but this
. did not account for all the deviations o
= Uranus. They reversed the calculations
and by so doing came to the conclusion
that, in order to harmonic the system
planet of certain proportions must ex
ist in an orbit at certain distance out.
side the orbit of Herschel, and to recon
cile this disturbing element such {
planet must then be in a certain part o
! his orbit. He wrote to DR.. Gale, o
: Berlin, to direct his telescope to a Ger
q tain point in the heavens, at a certain
n hour. 1t was done, and on the the frs
evening determination the elong-sought
: for planet was discovered, and wa
named Neptune. The period of hi
revolution round the sun is about Oh
> hundred and sixty-five years.
Continued next week.
THE WOMAN'S CENTENNIAL B0ARI
! TOR 0PEG0N