The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-05-01

ct about six degrees north of the sunset
point, fifteen degrees west of Jupiter and
twenty degrees south of Capela. Neptune
Is evening star until the 9th, and morning
star for the rest of the month On the 9th,
at Socock in the morning, he comes into
conjunction with the sun, being the first of
the four great planets to reach the goal. He
is then in straight line with the sun and
the earth, the sun being in the centre, the
farthest from the earth possible, and farther
from the earth than any other planet can be,
his distance being 2, 1858, 000, 900 miles. Sat-
urn Is evening star until the 20.h and morn
ing star for the rest Of the month. On the
Goth, at o'clock In the evening, he takeJ
his turn and comes into conjunction with
the sun. ten days after Neptune. Jupiter is
evening star during the month. He is fol-
lowing iu the wake of Neptune and Saturn
toward the same goal, but Is behind them
in the race, Jupiter sets on the LIST a quar-
ter before IL o'clock In the evening; on the
Slst he sets a quarter after O'clock. IRA
nus Is evening star. He has not completed
half his course on the way to conjunction
He sets on the LIST at s o'clock in the morn
ing; on the 3lst he sets a. five minutes after
o'clock. Venus Is morning star and rises
only an hour and a quarter before the sun.
On the 10th she is in conjunction with Mars,
but they will be far apart when they appear
above the horizon. They rise on the 10th
about half past O'Clock. Mars is morning
star, rising on the LIST about quarter before
4 o'clock in the morning; on the LIST at a
quarter before 8.
The May moon fulls ON the 2lst attwenty-
seven minutes past 10 O'Clock in the even
ing. The waning moon is In conjunction
with Venus on the 4th, and on the same
morning, four hours later, with Mars, show
ing how near the planets are to each other.
On the 9th the moon, four hours old, Is IN
conjunction with Neptune. On the It'll, at
noon, the one-day old crescent Is very near
Saturn, being eighteen minutes north. The
moon sets then at quarter past 8 o'clock
and under the best conditions of atmosphere
and sky, planet and crescent may possibly be
seen, though the moon travels so fast they
will then be several degrees apart. On the
Sth the moon pays her respects to Mercury,
on the 9th to Jupiter and on the 10Th to IRA
nus. The study of the moons conjunctions
with the planets affords an interesting as
well as an easy way of impressing upon the
memory their relative position in regard to
the sun and the earth.
On the 2lst the moon again occults Beta
Scorpi, repeating the phenomenon of the
-peh VI AOoAhot1s Nv q ttl0tS tuufcBtcUl ttut
for observation. This is a star Of the second
magnitude in the constellation Scorpio. 1t is
also noted double star, the larger compo.
nent being of the second magnitude, and
| yellowish white in color; and the smaller
| component being of the fifth and half mag
nitude and of lilac color. The moon il
| just past the full at the oecultation. so that
| nearly her whole disc is ilumined. An OBJ
| server with telescope that will separate
the star will witness a superb exhibition.
About IL O'Clock in the evening the larger
star will disappear behind the moon, and
in less than minute the smaller one will
follow. The immersion of the star has
then taken place. The occultation will
continue an hour and half. At half
part II o'clock the EMERSON Of the star has
then taken place, the companion stars reap
pearing on the opposite side of the moon.
The occultation may be observed with an
| opera glass, which, however, will not sepa.
rate the star into its componeDts. The
bright moonlight viii obscure the view to
| the unaided eye.