Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-14
Continued on Eighth Page.)
A wonderful World in the Sky.


Mars, one of the most Interesting of all
the worlds which, together with the earth,
compose the SUMS family, is now in an
unusually favorable situation for tele-
scOpic study. 1t can be readily recog-
nized by its steady reddish light as it fol-
lows Jupiter up the eastern slope of the
heavens. Three days ago Mars arrived
at opposition, and now it is only some
sixty odd million miles from the earth, so
that a magnifying power of $50 diameters,
which may be put upon good tele-
escOpe of three or four inches ap-
erture, suffices to bring it within
an apparent distance about equal to that
OF the moon. With such power many of
the principal features of the surface of
this distant world may be clearly DIS
cerned. In fact, popular misconceptiOn
prevails in regard to the visibility of plan
etary phenomena. Most persons who
have read of the existence of polar SHOWS
and of continents and seas ON Mars, sup
pose that only the great telescopes in the
large ObserVatOries are capable of reveal
ing those things to the eye. The fact is,
that they can be satisfactorily viewed with
a telescope that is not too large to be kept in
room, and which may be used, with proper
precautions, out of a high window, or
better in the open air, either on the ground
or on the roof. Many amateur astronO-
mers now possess comparatively small
elescOpes-costing only 5000 or $300-Of
such excellence that Sir William Herschel
would undoubtedly have given any price
to have obtained one of them in his day
With such a telescope the snow around
the north pole of Mars is at this moment
as easily visible as the dark spots in the
moon are to the naked eye. This Martial
snow field glitters so brilliantly that it
seems, by the effect of irradiation, to pro-
ject like a silver button beyond the out
line of the planet.
1t is very surprising thing that the as
trOnOmers of the earth really know more
about the poles of Mars than our geo.
graphers know about the poles Of the
globe upon which they dwell. While
Lieut.. Greedy and his companions have
vanished from the sight of men merely in
the edge of the snow cap that covers the
north pole of the earth, so that it is a
question whether they can ever be rescued,
we can sit comfortably in an observatory
chair and view the northern snow cap of
Mars, measuring it, mapping it, and
watching it advance and creep backward
with the variation of the season there.
Sixty million miles of space have not
proved impenetrable to human. eyes, but
a few hundred miles of ice fields on the
surface of our own globe have so far con-
stituted an insurmOuntable barrier to hui
man hands and feet.
no contemplate knowledge Of the meteor
ology of Mars. Astronomers have discov-
cred that there, as here, the seasons are
not equal even in the same hemisphere.
They have warm winters and cold sum.
mers on Mars, as we have on the earth
In some seasons all the Arctic regions of
the earth are choked with snow and ice,
so that the ordinary channels OF
the northern seas become impassa-
BILE. just so on Mars the severity of the
polar winter varies, and with it the ex-
tent of the SHOWS. During the opposi-
ton of 1862 there seems to have been a
very gloomy season in Mars, for it's at
mOsphere was heavily laden with clouds.
In 1877 there was less clOudiness, and at
some recent OppOsitions the atmosphere
of the planet has been still more free from
condensed vapor,. &c result being, of
course. that the Surface features were
more clearly distinguished.
There are many other equally interest
ing phenomena which this ruddy planet
presents, and which can be seen by any
body whs will lift his nose from the ter
restial grindst0ne and behold the heavens
as they are.
Pixies Toothache Drops cure in one
minute,