The Portland daily press., 1880-12-06
providence Journal.l
Planets in December.

venus is evening star aud easily wins the
place OF honor among the starry host that studs
the December sky. Almost as soon IS the sun
ii Ks below the horizon she makes her appear-
ance in the twilight's mellow glow, shining
with a soft golden lustre peculiarly her own,
and looking so bewitching'y fair that no OBJ.
server wonders that the early astronomers saw
in her the goddess of love and beauty en-.
th oned in the heavens She is still recedinp
from the sun, oscilating ON her eastern path
lik golden bead strung on an invisible wire
The proof of this is easily seen, for she sets
later every evening, and increases in size and
brightness by her consequent approach to the
earth. The apparent movement of this planet
Is so slow that shc can be easily followed in
ne c 'urse. 1t must be remembered that she
is now travelling from her superior conjunc-
ton, which occurred on the 18th of July, to
great eastern elongation, which she will
not reach until the Goth of February. Until
that time she will continue on her eastern
path, just as she is moving at the present
time. The comparative size of Jupiter and
Venus is now all interesting point of observa
tion. An ordinary observer would probably
say that Venus looked the larger of the two
But tile wise men OF science, who take care of
the stars, measure their dimensions for Years
ahead, and from their computations we learn
that on the 9th OF December The diameter of
Venus is about fourteen seconds of a degree
and that of Jupiter forty-two seconds Jupi-
ter's diameter being three times as large. w.
nu,, however, is SO much nearer the sun tina,
her illuminating power is much greater, and
IKE all heavenly bodies she looks larger as
sue approaches the horizon, while her rival
loses in apparent size as he approaches the ze-
NTH. This beautiful plauet sets now about a
quarter before o'clock. At the end of the
mouth she will grace the winter evening sky
until about 8, more than three hours after sun
set.
Jupiter is ev ening star, and beautiful oh.
lect III the sky, though his waning glory forces
him to yield the starry sceptre to his fair rival
Tne contrasted movements of the two planets
are sIlll matter OF prominent planetary inter-
est, Jun'er rising in the east as Venus de-
scends in the west, the one nearly reaching the
zenith as tue other dlstpp,a rs below the ho,i-
zon. They are also approaching each other
ss Jupiter moves westward and V nus east
ward; observers easily notice that the distance
lessons between Them On the 2lst of Februa-
~ they will be in conjunction, Jupiter being
three degrees south of Venus Jupiter is pass
ing from opposition to conjunction, and, on
the 3lst reaches the halfway point in his
course. his is called his quadrature; he is
then on the meridian about SIX o'clock in the
evening. The famous red spot still remains
on h s disc, retaining it's size and proportions
Several smaller spots have appeared in his
horthern hemisphere, aud a more brilliant
shading to the equatorial belts, as we'll as sew
ersl new ones nearer the poles have been noted
during The last month These phenomena
prove that fresh disturbances are agitating
the surface of the planet, and help to support
the theory OF planetary attraction as the cause
OF The sunspot period. The Austrian earth
quake, with the terrible destruction of life and
property that marked its course, bears witness
10 the believers in this theory, of the contin-
ued abnormal condition of the sun, and the
consequent war of the elements in terrestrial
territories, which are but the reflections of the
solar outbursts. The thermometer marking
81 below Zero in Western State, and the re-
port that several persons were frozen to death
not very lar distant from our own borders are
unusual evenis in No, ember annals. Jupiter
sets now at 2 2o'clock in the morning; at the end
OF the month about midnight:
Saturn is evening star, and though not the
mot beautiful, he is the most interesting of
the planets. Seen in The telescope lie has
been magnificent beyond description through
out the last month. With his opening
rin2s, his moons and his belts, he m; kes
picture which increases in beauty aud
grandeur the longer it is studied. We never
LOOK upon this complex and beautiful Saturni-
an system without wishing it were possible for