Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1882-12-06

The PLANET SATURN.-Saturn is So far
away in the shadowy deeps of space that
the Sun, which to us presents disk as big
as the moon, blazing with unhearable splen
dor and extinguishng every other light, ap-
pears from Saturn only as the chief of the
stars. Saturn receives from the sun only
about one hundreth part of the light and
heat that the earth receives. From his dis
tant orbit, the earth, Venus, Mars and even
Jupiter, must seem happy family, basking
together in the light warmth of the sun
Then what an impression of solitude and re-
pose comes from tho slowness of his orbita]
motion. While the nearer planets are speed-
like racers around the sun, Saturn remains
year after year in the same constellation
and nearly whole generation passes while
he is making single circuit
Saturn is now closer to the earth than he
has been before in nearly thirty years.
The two planets are not much more than
$4,000, 900 miles apart. The motion of the
earth in its orbit will rapidly increase it's dis
tance for six months, and then they will an
proach again and be still nearer next fail.
and nearer yet in 1854 After that Saturn
will swing further away from the sun and
the earth, and astronomers will have to
wait another generation before they can
have as favorable views of Saturn as are
now presented TO us. The rings arc now
opened out so widely that Il mere spyglass
will reveal them, The fact is that anv
amateur who has q modern four or five inch
telescope, made by one of our best makers.
can now obtain finer views Of the wonder
ful ringed planet than Sir William Herschel
ever had with his gigantic ctelescopes. When
Herschel in 1882 went with one OF his tee-
scopes to King George house to show him
the wonders of the heavens, he offset the
disappointment of a cloudy night by cutting
a moGel of Saturn in pasteboard, fastening
it at the bottom of the garden wall, and
having it Illuminated with lamps Herschel
says of this device that the effect was very
fno, ond 80 natural that it might have de.
ceived the best astronomers. Nobody who
has ever seen Saturn with a modern tele-
scope could be deceived by any device of
that kind.
Through the telescope golden ball is seen
surrounded by two broad concenctric rings
inclined to the line of sight so that their
general outline was long oval There are
dellcately shaded zones on the ball, the color
around the pole which is not hidden by the |
rings being q faint blue, while the euuatori-
al zone is light yellow. The rings, too. bare
delicate markings, the division between
them appearing as heavy black line Cir
cling outside the rings are several of the
planets moons
We are not very likely to find out whether
Saturn supports any inhabitants or not. AT
best we can only ascertain whether the |
planet is in condition which would make it |
lnhabitable according. to our ideas. But, in
hablted or not, Saturn must posses great in
terest Tor us. Distant as it is, it belongs to
the same family ofWorlds with our earth.
The sun is carrying these worlds along with |
1t in its flight through space, and in large
sense, they all have the same destiny. When |
we attempt to reach out into the universe
with our telescopes we find it is so incon-
celvably immense that even the most dis |
tant members of the solar system seem like |
near neighbors- in our Journey
through space. IF the earth is ever to
be destroyed believed it's ruin will only
be small part of grand catastrophe which |
will involve the whole system of which
the Sun is the centre; and so VIC cannot en-
tirely separate ourselves from these other
worlds. We are not merely denizens of
world, but of a system of worlds, all obeyine
the gravitating power of one sun. Like
sailors on ship at sea, who gladly wei
come the sight of other ships pursuing the
same course, though they can communicate
with them only by signals, we can derive
sense of companionship, amid the vastness
of the universe. from the presence within
the range of our vision of other worlds which
we know are going along with US in our il
limitable voyage.