The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-08-01
THE SKIES IN AUGUST.
A Meteorie Display Booked to Take
Place During the Second
Week.
The Solar Day Will Shorten More
Than an Hour in
August.
Jupiter Now che Evening Star-Its Time
Of Kisins-Venus Near the Sun
at Present.

st. Louis Globe Democrat; The event of
especial popular interest in the astronom-
ical annals of August is the meteosic dis
play which is booked to take place about
the beginning of the second week. Mete-
ors or shooting stars may be seen nearly
every clear night of the year. That is, if
watched for where a large expanse of sky is
open to the vision a glimpse may be OBJ
tanned of four or five every hour on any
night when the atmosphere is favorable for
observation. At certain periods of the
year the meteors are unusually numerous.
For example, on the nights of August 8,
10 and II and November II, IL and IA, twice
or three times as many are in the field of
vision as on other nights on the average.
The shooting stars seen on those two occa-
sions belong to streams of those minnie
bodies which pass around the sun, each of
those particles moving around the great
central luminary of the solar system in an
orbit, the orbits of each swarm intersectinp
the earth's path at one point. The earth,
when swinging in it's course, dashes through
enc of these streams early in August and
the other near the middle of November,
during which time the meteors are DETECTED
v thCi ~ Do Wy IhC y hJLTdCttOn
and are ignited by the arrested motion
caused by the resistance of our atmosphere,
leaving a luminous train hchind them.
Most OF them are burnt up before reaching
the earth. Those which are large enough
to run the gantlet successfully and strike
the ground are known as aerolites or me
teoroids.
Thu absence of the moon dds something
to the beauty of meteoric displays. On the
night of the 10th of August the moon will
be in the southwest at sunset, and will dis
appear abbout 10 o'clock. Between 1890 on
the nights of the 9th. 10th and 18th. and
three or four O'Clock the next morning will
be the best time to look for the meteors. The
August falling stars come from the point in
the sky occupied by the consultations. Per
seus, which rises into view in the northeast
these nights between 10 and IL o'clock.
Perseus is called their radiant point. Ii
the meteors of the first half of August be
traced back along their course they will be
found to emanate from the locality filled
by this star group. November meteors
come from the point occupied by the con-
stellation Leo. Those of August are called
Perseids. and those of November Leonids.
10 tbs average observer there is now a
marked dlmunition in the length of the
day az compared with four or five weeks
ago. For the two or three weeks imme-
dlately following the 21st of June, when the
daylight period was at its maximum. the
change was scarcely perceptible, but now
the iessenlng of the days, though by slow
degrees as yet, makes an important
inquire IN the aggregate. On the LIST
of August the time between sunrise and sun
set Will be forty minute shorter than it was
on July l, and forty-two minutes shorter
than on June q. The falling off in the
days length in August Will be seventy-seven
minutes. The rising and setting points OF
sun are moving slowly and steadily toward
the south. and thus the duration of thai