The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1875-07-28

-FOUR LANETs IN oIGHT--lHE WONDERS
OF THE II EAyENs--JUPITER,M MARS, SATURN,
AND VENUS TO BE SEEN ALL AT ONcE.-N OF
often do the starry heavens show US four
stropgly-shining, bright planets in one night,
but this has been for some time past the posi-
ton of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and Venus.
First comes into view the giant planet--that
vast orb, whose diameter is eleven times and
volume about 1900 times that of our own
globe Jupiter, the planet Of the mighty cloud.
envelopes, whose continued overshadowiDg of
the planet himself has led astronomers to doubt
if telescope vision has ever yet really penetra-
ted these enormous layers Of yapor to the sur
face of the planet itself. Jupiter is seen soon
after dark almost directly In the zenith, his
position at 8 o'clock being 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 apparent journey
every night through the skies Of earth. He
sets not far from midnight. Proctor believer
Jupiter TO be still n mass of seething internal
volcanic fire, giving out heat like sun, and
having but very slight crust cooled as yet,
and that subject to continual fiery outbursts
and oyerfows while the vast cloud belts a
thousand miles deep are either partly of vol
canic origin, or are discharging upon the
planet itself such foods OF. sulphur charged
rain as we cannot imagine. Mars next comes
in sight. He rises red away in the southern
part of the western horizon soon after dusk,
and by nine o'clock is conspicuous object
well up In tho southern hea-ons, and eusiiy
distinguishable by his ruddy hue. It is q
good time to scan Mars through good tele-
scope, for it will be two years before he is
again in so favorable position as he has been
in for the last month, and will te for little
time longer. That bright star of the ruddy
hue that comes up almost in the southeast
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. It is pretty
definitely decided that this ruddy hue Is due
to some quality or characteristics of his soil.
Mars, q smaller planet than Earth, presents
number of features that seem to warrant the
conclusion that his more general laws and
features are something akin to those of our
world. He has an atmosphere he has his
season of winter and summer--the region of
snow and ice around the southern pole annually
and visible decreasing and increasing In what
may be summer and winter. There are en-
that distant world oceans and continents this
much at least is certain. Not such oceans as
the Atlantic and Pacific, but strange, bottle
shaped seas, Of no great extent compared
with Earth's greatest. Whether they are
ever frozen OF not, nobody on earth yet knows
but it is Mr.. Proctor's belief that Mars, and
older planets than ours, has gone far past his
if he be not already entering, the cold and
lifeless condition Of such bodies Us our moon,
whose internal heat Is exhausted Later,
rising wan and fair, pale but luminous ghost
Of planet i'm the eastern sky, comes up great
Saturn--the ringed worlds This, on some ac-
counts, is the most interesting study OF all
the planets chiefly because of the nobility
and uncertainty of Its occasionally shifting
shape, and because Of it's giant illuminated
rings aud its eight attendant moons Its
enormous distance also invests it with GER
tain interest which would be wanting in a
near object. It Is ascertained that its density
does not exceed that Of water; and that the
probabilities seem to favor tho conclusion that
Saturn is sti1l a globe of molten matter---a
world OF liquid FIRE. It's aspect seen on q
clear night through q good glass, as the great
lemon-colored planet, girdled with its vast
elliptic rings, goes sailing silently across the
field Of vision, is beautiful and interesting be-
yond that of'any other. Much later-.in fact
in the early dawn of the coming morning
Venus comes resplendently into view. Most
brilliant Of all the planets to us, because she
is nearer TO us and to the sun, this remarkable
sister world nearest and apparently most like
our own world, is never more brilliant, never
more beautiful, than when, as the morning
star, she sheds the lustre of her golden (but
borrowed) beams upon the earth in the still
ness of the clear morning. Venus will proba-
bly, always be a difficult object of study, be-
cause 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 own world. &A