Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-05-27
WONDERS OF VENUS.
Thunder Reverberating Through the
Planets Valleys.
Philndelnhin Times.l

Philadelphia Times.l
Many who admire the beautiful
star which now adorns the western
sky until more than three hours after
the commencement of twilight may
not be aware that its ~splendor is de-
rived from the sun that in it, like on
the earth, night curtains the land
scape, morning dawns and seasons in
quick succession come and go. Lofty
mountains show that forces similar to
those which upheaYed the Alps and
lifted the SUBMITS of the Andes
above the regions of eternal snow
have ridged its surface and covered it
with hills and wales. Variable spots
prove that clouds float in its atmos-
phere, and CLEANS of light, which
dart across its sky, afford evidence
that in it lightning seams the sky and
the thunder's roll Invertebrates
through the valleys.
But three hundred miles less in
diameter than the earth, and r%evolv-
ing on its axis in nearly the same
time, Venus makes thirteen revolu-
tions around the sun while the former
makes eight. AS the inclination of
the planet to the plane of its orbit is
at least ifty-four degrees, its torrid
zone is double that extent, or one
hundred and eight degrees, and its
polar circles fifty-four degrees from
the poles. 1t therefore has two frigid
and a torrid, but no temperate zone.
Since the sun must arrive at the equa-
tor and depart from it to the distance
Of ifty-four degrees twice in each Of
its years, there must be two summers
and two winters annually in the torrid
zone, and a winter and a summer in
each OF the frigid. Venus becomes
the morning star after its superior
conjunction, when it appears, through
the telescope, crescent-shaped like the
new moon. The orbits of this planet
and of Mercury are within the orbit of
the earth, and consequently they are
r never seen in opposition to the sun,
, that is in the east when thesun is in the
west, or in the west and the sun in the
east. At its inferior conjunction
Venus is nearer to the earth than any
other planet, except the moon, and
, sometimes when approaching the
r greatest distance, which it seems to
recede from the sun, casts a shadow
> and is visible in the full light of day.
If at the period when it is nearest to
the earth, the enlightened part were
0 fully turned toward the latter, this
planet would appear twenty times as
brilliant as it now does and almost vie
with the moon in dissipating the dark
e ness of night. Being situated at about
t one-third less distance from the sun
= than the earth, Venus receives more
, light from that luminary than i.
received by the former planet, anC
; seems not to require the aid of {
moon. Nevertheless, several astrono.
mers have affirmed that they have no.
ticed such a body, and have even gon,
. so far as to calculate the orbit of tn,
o supposed satellite, but their obserya
lions have not been verified.
The transits of Venus, or its paSs
age between the earth and the sun
when it appears as a round dark spo
: moving slowly across the solar disc
Sc have been made to assist in determin
lie ing the distance of the earth from tn,
1t central luminary. The last transi
% occurred in December, 1874, and tn
next will take place in December
&c 1882. AS this can be viewed in tn
II United States it will awaken a create
lie interest than the transit which Kitten
le house and others observed more tina.
a century ago. But four t~ransits q
Venus have been observed, and afte
1882 one hundred and t~wenty-one an,
a half years will elapse before tn
alternately morning and evening sta
&c will pursue its seeming pathwa
~ n across the surface of the great orb O
day.