The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-07-19

OBSERVATIONS or THE HEAVENS IN 'oLf'
fr-.,,, IN. ts,aseow Evening Times.1

Now that July his come, and the nights
heoin 20 ienc,beu and the skies TO darken,
| ohscrvation Of the heavens has become
moro honeful: more stars are to be seen,
and their aspect and CONFORMATION more
readily Ia be examined. II about 10 O'Clock
this evening we look toward the north.
west we will see the seven stars OF
| The plough. To the left, pointed
ont by the two stars which form the end
of tbc handle. will be seen the great first
magnitude star Arcturus, q Bo0tis. Still
further to the left, but higher up will be
| found Corona Borealis, with Its exquisitely
beautiful Alphecca (o.) Comma, or Clava
Corong--Gem, or Key, Of the Crown.
ITpon the meridian therefore due SOUTH
will be Hercules, and to the east will be be-
held the great triangle OF Vega, Affair, and
Deneb. Vega will he near the zenith !;
Deneb almost due east. Cassiopeia and
Cepheus will be found in the northeast.
The aspect Of the sky thus indicated Is in
teresting and beautiful; there are seasons
when the appearance OF the heavens IS
grander, but none in which II is more eX-
quisite than the month OF July.
For those who are fond OF examining the
stars 1t is well at present that II Is so, ior
with the exception OF Uranus every one OF
the planets is absent from the nght-sky.
Mars, and Jupiter. and Saturn are all prac.
ticolly inyisible-lOst in the brilllancy OF
the solar rays. Mercury and Venus are
morning stars, and are very badly placed
for observation, Upon the 4th and Sth
they will be close together. and upon the
goth Mercury will be in conjunction with
Jupiter. The moon will be new about 800
O'Clock tomorrow afternoon. She VIII be
in her first quarter about O'Clock OF the
/ 10Th. full at 3:45 on the morning OF the
Doth. and enter her last quarter some time
after midnight of the 26th. The moon will
not occult any star Of brightness greater
than the sixth magnitude, at an hour con-
venient for those for whom these notes are
intended. What there is Of interest TO tell
tdis month mainly concerns the sun. On
the Dist of last month he was technically
said to enter Cancer, and summer was said
TO commence. As our former readers Will
be aware, he, on that day, in reality, en-
tered GemIni: on the Goth of this month
he will technically enter Leo, but will, for
the reasons already explained. really enter
Cancer. To-day his right ascension at
noon will be hours and IS minutes, and
his dcclination go So. On the 3lst
his right ascension will he hours
Al minutes, his declination $50 81.
At little after 5 ?. NJ. to-day the
earth will make her aphelion passage Tor,
as it is expected, be in apheion). The
same fact may be conversely stated thus,
that the sun will be ain apogee." This
means that, at the time referred to, the
earth will be ut that point of her orbit
which is at the greatest distance from the
sun. Her actual distance from him will,
adopting the parallaX employed in the
"NauticaI Almanac" be $3.50, lGG miles.
The word "apheliOn" is the converse Of
the word "perihelion," which in some
quarters caused so much vague dread and
produced so much connection few years
ago. The words are the terms employed
by astronomers to designate respectively the
points OF the orbit of a member OF the solar
system, at which il is at its greatest or at its
least distance from the central orb. The cor
responding words, apogce and perigee,
signify. III the case OF the earth, the same
points of the orbit; but when they are EN-
ployed the distance is supposed to be reck-
oned from the sun-or planet-to the
earth. A very splendid spot has been visi-
bic upon the sun. Upon Sunday it was
easily seen by aid of an opera-glass. The
total eclipse, which took place npon the 9th
of MAY, seems to have been observed with
great success. The telegram read to the
French Academy of Sciences at their meet
ing fortnight since, and the Reuters tele
cram, which has been published. are
most satisfactory. The presence in the
coronal spectrum OF the dark (Fraun-
hoferl lines in the solar spectrum has
been established. BY many eminent as
tronomers this is held to prove the
presence of meteoric and cometary matter
in the corona. Individually it proves that
a large portion of the light emitted by that
object IS reflected sunlight. NJ. Tacchni
has found that the spectrum of the great
streamers, which form so magnificent a
portion OF the corona, presents an analogy
with the well-known "cOmet" spectrum
an important and suggestive discovery.
NM. PalIsa and Trouvelot were unsuccess-
full in their search for intra- Mercurial
planets. Very few prominences were
visible. The Enlish Observers-Messrs.
Lawrence and WOods-seem also to
have succeeded. One matter OF inn
portance is that they obtained pho
tographs of the eXquisitely beautiful
phenomenon called by Mr.. Lockyer the
flash" As the moon advances upon tie
solar disk she Of course hides it gradually.
| IL an observer have q spectroscope 80
placed as Just to include the edge OF the
solar disk and a little space outside in the
field, he will see just at the instant when
the moons rim exactly comedies with the
solar disk ali the lines which a moment
before he had been observing as black
upon the rainbow-tinted background OF
the continuous spectrum start out bril-
liant, each having the line which III
the ordinary spectrum 1t absorDs.
This phenomenon was first observed
in 1870, but its reality was then de-
MED by some, with whose preconceived
theories it refused to agree. The reason
OF the appearance of these bright lines is
that the incandescent gases which cause
the absorption which produces the black
Fraunhofer lines lie above the glowing
masses which give rise to the continuous
spectrum, and form an atmosphere sur
rounding the sun. As this atmosphere is
everywhere on the outside OF the sun, it Is OF
course on the outside at the apparent edge,
too, and. as n direct consequence, comes
into view when the Overpoweringly-bril.
liant background is hidden. The next
T total solar eclipse will be in 1855, and be
! seen In New Zealand. 1t will he remark.
able because OF the circumstance that Jupi
e ter will be close 90 the suns limb, les,
u than an apparent diameter of the sun and
y q half.
MeteOrs become more numerous in July
]. The best chances Of seeing them occur Oh
the 18th, Goth, and 10Th.
Facts ana Gossip from Abroad.