Democratic messenger., 1881-11-05
Up in the Heavens.
WHAT ONE GAN SEE BY HAVING AN EYE
TO THE SKY.

The planets now visible in the east
are, in the order in which they ascend.
Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. Saturn is
in the constellation Aries, the first in
the circle of the zodiac. You can recog-
nize this constellation by two stars q
few degrees northwest of Saturn, one of
which has little companion near it.
The brightest of these is Arietis, very
famous star, and exceedingly useful to
sailors. It is said that navigator, lost
in an unknown sea, could at once de-
termine his position and his distance
from any harbor on the earth by meas
uring the distance between Arietis and
the moon. Next east of Aries is
Taurus, in which Jupiter now shines.
Taurus is known by the cluster of the
Pleiades, and the V-shaped Hyades in
which rose-red Aldebaran shines pre-
eminent. Further east are the Twins,
marked by two bright stars of equal
magnitude, Castor and Pollux. Castor
is splendid object in the telescope, as
it consists of two suns, one white and
the other light green. These Twins,
according to mythology, are the Won
derful brothers who accompanied Jason
in his Argcnautic expedition, and are
the tabled patrons of navigation. You
will recognize Mars, shining little be-
low the twins, by his fiery hue. This
red color of Mars has led to some of
the most interesting speculations in
astronomy. Some think it is caused by
his having red vegetation instead of
green, like that of the earth. To prove
that our green grass and green leaves
gives the earth's continents cores
ponding color as seen from other
worlds, they relate very curious cir
cumstance. Everybody knows that
when the moon is only few days old
the portion that is unilluminated by the
sun, appears to be shining with a pale,
ashy light, which is reflected to it from
The earth. On February IA, IVA, the
French astronomer, Lambert, saw this
ashen light change to an olive green.
Upon investigating the cause of the
phenomenon he observed that the moon,
at the time, stood vertically over the
Atlantic Ocean, in such a position that
the green light reflected from the broad,
grassy plains and forests of South
America must have fallen upon its night
side an9 been family reflected back, to
the earth again. s
Southeast of Taurus @ Orion, which
needslno description The: three stars
in the giants belt; sometimes ealled
Jacobs stat. points to the splendid
Sirius: or old dog star. The Romans
used.to sacrifice a~dog to Snius every
year, and almost every natioilo of ancient
times had some superstition about the
power and influence of this star. Hyou
possess q telescope you can spend many
pleasant evenings among the stars OF
Orion, which, on account of its splendid
appearance and it's richness in telescope
objects, has been the California of the
sky.
Northeast of the Twins is the Chari-
oteer, constellation which is made
conspicuous by the beauty of its princi-
pal star, Capella. All eyes were turned
to Capella last summer, when it served
as sign post to point out the path of
two comets in succession.
The consultations that circle about
the North Pole, such as the Great Bear,
Andromeda, Cassiopeia, and Persons,
hardly need a description, since they
are constantly visible, and their ont
lines must be familiar to all who pay any
attention TO the evening sky. Those
which are now seen setting soon after
s,indown--the Scorpion, Bootes, Lyra,
the Eagle and Others-we pointed out
last summer when they were the reign
ing beauties of the ni9ht.-N Y. Sun.