Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-08-23
AUGUST ATTRACTIONS
In the Heavens-Saturn and Jupiter
to the Fore.

inc ncdNcnS-SatoEn "s.e
TO the Fore.
Saturn aud Jupiter are beginning to show
conspicuously in tn e morning sky. Saturn
especially is beautiful object for the ,ele
scope, as il rises early and by or O'Clock
IN. is entirely clear of the mists OF the
horizon. Its rings have opened so widely
that in their narrowest diameter they are
as broad as the ball of the planet, and the
division between the two principal rings
can be seen all the way round, except where
they pass behind the planet, even with
small telescopes. With sufficient tele-
scepic power, the marvellous gauze ring in
side the other two can be beautifully seen.
1t does not require much magnltying
power to show the black band OF shadow
that the globe of Saturn casts upon the
rings on the side away from the sun. Inc
delicate shades Of color that variegate poth
the planet and the rings, the markings
which give a stereoscopic effect, making
this wonderful hinged world appear to be
actually suspended before the eyes ike
Golden ball of the most exquisite work
mapship hung within splendid double
ring of the same metal, and the swarm OF
little moons circling about the whole ana
perpetually changing their places, furnlsh
exhaustless delight to the possessor Oh
good telescope.
Jupiter, with his cloud belts, his mys-
FERROUS red and white spots, his swiftly re,
volying satellites lodging in and OUT OF
the gigantic shadow OF the great ORD ana
throwing back dots of a shade upon his
disk as they pass around the sunward side
of the planet, is as interesting as saturn,
but he rises some two hours later, ana WIZ
be better seen in September and OCTOBER
Taurus and Orion and other Conscientious
that make the winter evenings brilliant
NAV now be seen in the morning sky. They
furnish hundreds of interesting objects Tor
the telescope in the shape OF nebula, star
clusters and double stars. The most wonder.
full of all is the great Nebula in the Sword OF
Orion. A mere spy-glass will show 1t as
patch OF luminous cloud with stars scat
tered through it. In good telescope It's
appearance is indescEibable. Lord Kosse
thought he could resolve it into excessively
minute stars with his gigantl telescope a,
ParsonStown, but the spectroscope showed
that he was mistaken and that this strange
object is a mass of matter in gaseous con,
dition and extending over millions ana
millions of miles. In one place four stars
shine close together in this luminous
mass, and there are other stars scattered
through il. 1t is not an unreasonable queS-
ton to ask whether We do not here behold,
in the very act, the formation OF new
system of suns and worlds out OF chaos.
Venus is becoming very brilliant in the
evening sky, throwing her fiery neighbor,
Mars, completely into the shade. In the
telescope she now resembles the moon
when il is little past half full. through
the autumn she Will continue to grow more
and more brilliant until she appears as a
thin crescent. silver bow. Then she Will
disappear as star, TO reappear on the otn
December as black dot on the sun. At
4. q; ba y-s11 hoya IN fare Sncl DrlS-
Ting array of telescopes as was probably
never before turned upon any celestial
body. Almost every civilized government
hes fitted out expeditions OF astron'
omers to observe the transit from
various parts of the world, ana
in Western and Central Europe, North
and South America and Australia thou.
sands OF telescopes will be trained upon the
sun from public and private obseryatories,
roofs, back yards, lawns, city parks and
street corners. Everybody will want to
have at least one good lock at Venus upon
the suns disk, for all the world will be
talking about it, and neither We OF this gen.
Grafton nor our children, and but few even
of our grandchildren, will behold another
transit of Venus, for the next occurs in the
wear 2UOl. After it is over the astrono-
mers will set themselves down 70 figuring.
Their calculations will extend through
months and even years, and at the last
they will probably announce that they
have not vel obtained exact knowledge OF
distance Of the sun, that they believe they
are within about 100, 600 miles of the truth,
and tina. at the next transit of Venus they
hone the astronomers of the twenty-hrst
century will be able 10 reduce the limits OF
error to $4,000 miles or less. There are,
however, other methods of measuring the
suns distance, which il is hoped will long
before that time give more satisfactory re-
sultS