Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-08-17
A BIG SHOW OF PLANETS.

~ OAAVU VI
Jupiter, Mars. saturp and v.,u.
all In BtEht-rheIr Joint Annear-
Only"
Not often do the starry heavens show
us four strougly-shining, bright ulanets
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 planet-that vast orb.
whose diameter is eleven times and His
volume about 300 times that of our own
g~lobe-Jupiter, the planet Of the mighty
cloud'envelopes, whose continued over
shadowing Of the planet himself has led
astronomers to doubt if telescope vision
has ever yet really penetrated these enor-
nous layers of vapor to the surface Of
the planet itself. Jupiter is seen soon
after dark almost directly in the zenith
his position at 5 o'clock being a little
west and south Of it; aud his slow and
majestic sweep around the sun, which re-
quires twelve of our years, scarcely bet
ter COMFORTS with his vast dimensions
than does his apparent journey every
night through the skies of earth. He
sets not far from midnight. Proctor be-
lieves Jupiter to be still a mass OF seeth-
ing internal volcanic fire, giving out heat
like a sun, and having but a very slight
crust cooled as yet, and that subject TO
continual fiery outbursts and o%veraows;
while the vast cloui-belts, a thousand
miles deep, are either partly OF volcanic
origin, or are discharging upon the planet
itself SUCH floods Of sulphur-charged rain
as we cannot imagine.
Mars comes next in sight. He rises
red away in the southern part OF the
western horizon soon after dusk, and by
8 o'clock is conspicuous object, well up
in the southern heavens, and easily dis
tinguisEable by his ruddy hue. 1t is a
good time to scar Mars through q good
telescope, for it will be two years before
be is again in so favorable a position as
he has been in for the last month, and
will be for a little time longer. The
bright star Of the rHddy hue that comes
up almost in the southeast soon after
dark, is the neighbor world which of all
the planet:ry 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, a smaller
planet than earth, presents a number Of
features that seem to warrant the conclu-
sion that his more general laws and fea-
lures 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 south
ern pole annually and visibly decreasing
and increasing in what may be summer
and winter. There are on hat distant
world oceans and continents; this much,
at least, is certain. Not such oceans as
the Atlantic and Pacific, but strange, bot
tie shaped seas,o no great extent compar-
ed with earth's greatest. Whether they
are ever frozen or rotnobody on earth yet
knows; but it is Mr.. Proctor's belief that
Mars and other planets than ours has
gone far past his period of greatest life,
and is fast approaching, if he be not al
ready entering, the cold and %lifeless CON
dition OF such bodies as our moon, whose
external heat is exhausted.
Later, rising wan and far, a pale but
luminous ghost Of a planet in the eastern
sky, ONE up great Saturn-the ringed
world. This, on some accounts, is the
most interesting study Of all the planets;
chiefly because Of the mobility and un-
certainty Of its occasionally shifting
shape, and because Of its gi-nt illumin-
ated rings and its eight attendant
moons. Its enormous distance also in
vests it with a certain interest which
would be wanting in a near object. 1t
is ascertained that its density does not
exceed that Of water; and the proba-
bilities seem to favor the conclusion that
Saturn is still a globe Of motion matter
"a world of liquid fire. Its aspect seen
on a clear night through a good glass, as
the great lemon colofed planet, girdled
with its vast elliptic rings, goes sailing
silently across the field of vision, is
beautiful and interesting beyond that Of
any other.
Much later-in fact the early dawn of
the morning-Venus comes resplend-
emily 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 mogss
brilliant, never more beautiful, then
when, as the morning star, she sheds the
luster of her golden (but borrowed)
beams upon the earth in the stiffness of
the clear morning. Venus will probably
always be a difficult object to study, be-
csuse of her proximity to the sun, but
it is found that there are reasons for be-
lieving some Of her mountains to be
equal in height to the highest Of our
" world.