The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-06-28
Conjunction of Mars and.saturn.

This is not the malignant conjunction that We see
so much about in the papers. The conjunction Of
Mars and Saturn viii take place on June 30ih, at
8 hours, s u minutes and As seconds IN the morning,
Honolulu mean time, and consequently not visible
here. The last time these two planets we're in the
game position was Nov. 2nd, 1877, at 10 in the
evening, Honolulu mean time, and seen by the
writer. Jupiter is so degrees west of the two planets
when they come within 8 minutes and y seconds Of
arc Of each other. At the conjunction. they will be
about the same distance, Mars passing above Saturn.
1t will take one year for Jupiter to get where
Saturn now is, as his movements are a little more
than so degrees in one year. Saturn reyoives around
the sun once in 294 years; Mars revolves around the
sun in 6s7 days, at o mean distance from the sun of
145, 10000 miles. Jupiter's mean distance Is
4q4 ,256 900 miles from the sun. Saturn's mean
distance is zoe, 205, 900 miles from the sun and the
two planets, Uranus and Neptune We need not get
scared about, as they are so remote that 1t takes q
powerful telescope TO see them.
And by a little reflection it can easily be seen that
our three nearest planets outide the orbit Of the
earth are often in conjunction, but not in perihelion,
as Mars is with the earth about once in fifteen years,
when the earth is farthest from sun, in June, July
and August.
If any Of the readers Of this should wish to calcu-
late the elements and position Of any of the planets
they can receive all the information necessary by
calling on the writer. So also in regard to the
OAAO1 VI Al AGAlAN y ~ SAG8 oa4 ~ AANAAAA1
that revolve around and obey the same common law,
as our moon, and the moons Of other planets, all
guided by no accident, but all and each dependant
upon the other, and all tied to one common center,
the Sun.
Is there anything strange in a class Of people
worshipping the visible god of day, the author of all
life and light on this globe-this wonderous body,
and all its attendant worlds revolving in space, and
governed by one fixed and immutabIe law And
our astronomers are so certain that our sun and his
system is moving in space, Obeying some great cen
tre-that according to observation and mathemati-
cal analysis, there is but one chance in 400, 900 that
they can be mistaken.
Ii must be remembered that all the heavenly
bodies are approaching or receding from their pri-
maries, moving in ~elliptical curves, disturbing and
being disturbed by each other, always changing
but never changed, all coming to their allotted
places after undergoing their cycles of revolution
and change. As an example will endeayor to give
some of the motions of this Earth, and they are all
mathematically correct. Tie procession of the YER
nal equinox will make one revolution around fhe
Earth's equator IN 25,86S years. There are two
other motions of fine Earth that are calculated with
as much certainty as the above. One Is 2O,9o4
wears the other is subordinate to the above and
both are motions Of the perihelion point of the
Earth's orbit. The last one takes 104,9 $50 years.
1t is by these calculations that the astronomer
makes his calculations for centuries to come and
makes no mistakes, and does not predict the end of
what had no beginning and can have no end. And
with the accumulated knowledge of all that have lived
before him, he sees nothing but stability in this
Solar system and in countless millions of other suns
with their retinues of satellites, making revolutions
and obeying the 9:ea. law of gravitatioa emanating
from some centre that the mind of man cannot con-
ceive of any more than he can the immensely OF
space.
A newspaper is no place to discuss such subjects
Everyday life is q much better object of study for a
penny-a-liner than soaring among the starry heavens,
where it is not likely he will ever get-without
mending his ways. WALTER EDMUND WOOD.