The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-08-06
FOUR PLANETS IN SIGHT,.
The Wonders of the Heavens-Jupiter,
Mars, Saturn and Venus to be Seen MI
Mt Once

at Once.
Not often DO the starry heavens snow
Is four strongly->hining, bright planets
in one night, but this has been for some
time past the position of Jupiter, Mars,
Saturn and Venus. First comes into view
that giant p~lanet-that vast orb, whose
diameter is eleven times and his volume
about 300 times that of our WI globe
Jupiter, the planet of the mighty cloud
envelopes. whose continued 0VershaGOW-
ing of the planet himself has led aStrOnO-
mers to doubt if telescope vision has ever
yet really penetrated these enormous lay
erS of vapOr TO the surface of the planet
itself. Jupiter is seen soon after dark al
most directly in the zenith, his position at
s O'Clock being a little west and south of
it; and his slow and majestic sweep
around the sun, which requires twelve of
our years, scarcely better COMFORTS with
his vast dimensions than does his appar-
ent journey every night through the skies
of earth. He sets not far from midnight.
Proctor believes Jupiter to he still a mass
of seething internal volcanic fire, giving
out heat like a sun, and having but a very
slight crust cooled As yet, and chat sub
Iect to continual fiery OutburstS and over
flows; while the vast cloud belts. Il thou
sand miles deep, are either partly OF vol
Canic origin, or are diSch&rging upon the
planet itself such flOoiS of sulphur
charged rain as we cannot imagine. Mars
next comes in sight. He rises red away
in the southern part OF the eastern hOri-
ION o on after dusk, and by9 O'Clock is a
conspicuous object we'll up III the southern
heavens. and easily distinguiShable by his
ruddy hue. Its Il good time 10 sean Mars
through a good telescope. for it will be
two years before he is again in so favor
able a position as e has been in for the
last month, and will be for a little time
longer. That bright star Of the ruddv
hue that comes up almost in the south
east soon after dark, is the neighbor world
which, OF all the planetary system. has
presented the most interesting field for
astronomical study, and best rewarded
such studies. 1t is pretty definitely decided
that this ruddy hue is due TO some quality
or characteristic of his soil. Mars, small
er planet than Earth, presents Il number
of features that seem to warrant the
conclusion that his more general laws and
features are something akin to those of
our own world. He has an atmosphere;
he has his season of winter and
the region OF snow and ice around the
southern pole annually and visibly de-
creasing and increasing in what may be
summer and winter. There are on that
distant world oceans and continents ;
this much at least is certain. Not such
oceans As the Atlantic and Pacific, but
strange, bOttled-Shaped seas. of no great
extent compared with Earth's greatest.
Whether they are ever frozen or not, no
body on earth yet knows, but it is Mr..
PrOctOr's belief that Mars. and older plan
cts than ours, has gone far past his period
of greatest life, and is fast approaching, if
he be not already entering, the cold and
litcless condition of such bodies as II
mOon. whose internal heat is exhausted.
Later, rising wan and far, a pale but lum-
nous ghost of a planet in the eastern sky
comes up great Saturn-the hinged world.
This, on some accounts. is the most inter-
cause of the mobility and uncertainty OF
its giant Illuminated rings and its eight at
tendant moons. Its enormous distance
also invests il with certain interest which
would be wanting in a near object. 1t is
a>Ccri aimed that its density DOES not eX-
ceed that of water; and the probabilities
seem to favor the conclusion that Saturn is
still Il globe of molten matter-a world of
liquid fire. Is aspect seen on a clear night
through a good glass, as the great lemon
cOlOred planet, girdled with its vast clip
tic rings, goes sailing silently across the
field OF vision, is beautiful and Interesting
beyond tlat of any other. Much later
in fact in the early dawn of the coming
morning-Venus comes r~esplendently
into view. Most brilliant of all the planets
to us, because she is nearer to Us and TO the
sun, this remark Bile sister world, nearest
and apparently most ike our W world,
is never more brilliant, never more beau
tiful, than when. as the morning star, she
sheds the lustre of her golden (but Dor
rowed) beams upon the earth in the still
ness of the clear morning. Venus will
probably always be a difficult object of
study, because of her proximity to the
Sun, but it is found that there are reasons
for believing some of her mountains to be
equal in height to the highest OF our w
world.-Rnrtford Times.
Perfectly Satisfactory.
She said She,l taka q dozen of aGGS. but