The Portland daily press., 1882-09-02

ont for the 28th, Mercury sets on the 18th,
about three-auarters of an hour after tne sun.
The prospect is therefore nor very goou lor SeI-
ting sight of him. On the list. Mercury is In
conjunction with Mars III Is pareiy poSslole
thaf hrio ht-eyed observers may obtain a view
of the conjunction if the sky be exceptionally
clear on tie evenings OF the 10th and 21st.
Mercury is then ten degrees south of the sun,
eight degrees north of Venus, and two and
half degrees south Of Mars. Besides reaching
his eastern elongation and PLAYING a part IN
two conjunctions, he is III his descending node
on the 9th, and in aphelion on the 10th. Thus
it will be seen that the swift-winged planet is
busy member of the family during Septem-
Der.
Mercury sets now q few minutes after Z
o'clock in the evening; at the end OF the month
he se' at half-past o'clock.
Mars is evening star and scarcely worth
mentioning for any part he plays among his
peers. Contented with the laurels won in Au-
gust. when he bore his part in the lovely even
ing pictures with which, in conjunction with
Venus, he diversified the sky, he now hastens
to retire into temporary eclipse in the suns
bright beams We have already alluded to his
conjunction with Mercury on the 21st
Mars now sets about twenty minutes before
o'clock in the evening; at the end OF the
month he sets about halt-past 6.
Uranus is evening star until the 18th, when,
at o'clock in the afternoon, he comes into con-
junction with the sun. He is the last OF the
four giant planets to reach tho goal, turning
the point when they are far on their way to OPP
position. AT conjunction he is joined with the
| sun, rising and setting with him, and as COM
| pletely hidden from human gaze as he was I'M
| til 1881, when Herschel introduced him to ter
| restrial observers After the llth, Uranus is
| morning STAR and will hold his place on the
| list until his opposition.
Uranus sets on the 1st about o'clock in the
evening; on the Both he rises about half-past
| O'clock i'll the morning.
TUE MOON
The September moon fulls on the 9th at
| twenty-six minutes after midnight 1t is the
| beautiful harvest moon, and possesses special
| claims to distinction. For owing to the position
| of the ecliptic 10 regard to the equator at this
| season, the moon rises for several consecutive
| nights with only com pafatively small inter-
val between the successive rlslngs. The short
autumnal days seem thus to be prolonged by
| theshoods of silvery moonlight that make the
| night beautiful as day. The phenomenon is as
easily explained as the axial rotation OF the
earth. But in the older times, when man was
| nearer to nature, the harvest moon was consld-
| cred a direct intsrposltion of Providence to as
! sisu the lasbandman in gathering in the har-
| vest. The waning moon is in conjunction with
| Neptune the I'd, with Saturn on the Sd,
| with Jupiter on the 5th. and with Uranus on
| the 18th. The new moon of the 18th is III con-
| junction with Mercury and Mars on the l4th
I and.With Venus on the 10th, passing degree
/ and a half north of her.
| of the planets will fnd material of unusual in
ierest Venus and Mercury will reach their
eastern elongations; Mercury Wilde IN close
conjunction with Spica, and make near ap-
proach to Mars; Jupiter will be in quadrature;
Venus and the crescent moon will shine to-
| gether in the western sky, and the full harvest
moon will be- the browning feature of the
nights of the early autumn. Every night the
aspect will vary. Never in the lifetime OF che
obs rver will the same picture be repeated,
| and within the bounds OF our own system there
| is abundant work for the exercise of the noblest
powers But the SUI and his family of worlds,
| of such vital Importance to the human race, il
only one little cloud-speck in the vast con-
course of the eighteen million suns that make
| up the Milky Way. This, in its turn, is even
more insignificant in comparison with the myr-
lad suns that people space, and the masses OF
nebulous haze so far away that light is thous
ands of years in passing over the distance
There is no end no boundary line visible te
DOR dim perception of this grand material uni
verse, Ii We may be allowed to compare the
infinitely great with the infinitely little, there
is no end to the pleasure and profit to be de
rived from the study of the many-sided science
of astronomy.