Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-01
THE HEAVENS FOR OCTOBER.

| mark the turning point of the year. The
Milky yRy which with its soft, warm glow
seems SO essential a characteristic OF sum-
mer evenings, during this month sinks out
OF s1ght IN the west, while the stormy
| Pleiades" rising in the east herald the COM
ing of winter. But unless we prolong our
observations till after midnight the wintry
Orion ana sparkling Sirius are not vet with
| us, anu octoDer presents to US comDlna'
tion of consultations peculiarly her own.
First, however, let take. look at our
nearer neighpors, the moon and planets
This month we have what is known as the
Hunting Moon, which for several days De-
fore and after it is full rises nearly at sun
set, and so is supposed to light the belated
| hunter on his homeward way. This cons1o-
crate action on the part of our satellite OF
course occurs every fall, and people are
| accustomed to looking out for the Harvest
| Moon in September and the Hunting Moon
| in October. But as many probably nave
| vague idea of this phenomenon, a few words
| of explanation might not be out OF place.
As we all know, the moon rises later ana
later each successive day, no matter what
its phase or the time of the year may be.
| This is called its retardation in rising NOW
for several reasons which we need not DIS
cuss here this retardation varies greatly,
being sometimes in this latitude as little as
| 2S minutes and sometimes as muo II as nouf
| IL minutes. But we are not apt to notice
this minimum retardation except when 1t
| occurs at the time of full moon, when 1t De-
comes very noticeable, as the full. round
disk then rises for four or five evenings soon
after>sunset. The minimum retardation, to
be sure, occurs every month, but occurs
only once in the year when the moon Is full,
and that always happens near the time of
the autumnal equinox at the end OF Septem-
ber. Then we have our Harvest Moon. The
O9fpber full moon comes pretty near when
| retardation is least and 80 gives us
Mhilarly noticeable phenomenon. This
iyefr, strangely enough the Harvest Moon
aud the Hunting Moon are just about
equally distant from the equinox. SO that
one is just as favorable as the other, though
ordinarily the former is rather more notice.
able.
The moon is full on the 9Th, and on the
Goth, having entirely waned, it lines up with
the sun, and partially eclipses it, which is,
however, phenomenon of no especial in
| terest to us, as the shadow does not pass
over Pittsburg.
Mars Now Gives Way to Jupiter.
MARS is still bright in the South, but the
effect of its rapidly increasing distance from
| the earth is plainly seen in its diminished
| splendor. 1t is now not half so bright as the
| giant Jupiter, which rises in the east about
| sunset with his retinue of five satellites if
you please, and shines all night with unsur
| passed brilliancy. The four moons discov-
| cred by Gaiileo in 1910 may be seen with a
| field glass or a good opera glass, but it would
be advisable for ambitious observers not to
strain their eyes hunting for Prof. Barnards
| pride, the recently discovered fifth satellite,
as according to Prof Keeler, it is probably
beyond the range of his Allegheny observa-
| fOrv fol
of the other four moons. and as a conse-
| quence it is more nearly concealed by the
| dazzling rays of the planet, which fact &C.
| counts for it's having lain undiscovered and
| quite unsupported for so many years. Jupiter
| is in opposition to the sun on the 18th, and
| is then of course at his brightest. Unlike
| Mars one opposition of Jupiter is about as
favorable as another, as his orbit is much
| less eccentric than that of Mars. and at any
rate his distance is vast (sbout 400, 600, 600
| miles) that few million miles more or less
| makes scarcely any appreciable difference
! in his brightness.
Saturn and Venus do not rise till after
midnight
| The old familiar Dipper is sinking out of
| sight in the west at O'Clock this evening,
| so we must take something else for a land
mark if we wish to fish out some of the not
| able stars and consultations this month If
about half way from horizon to zenith, we
| see four bright second magnitude stars set
| zig gag in the midst of the last remaining
remnant of the Milky Way This is Cassie
peia, or Cassiopeia's Chair as it is sometimes
called, and is conspicuous enough. to serve
as starting point. 1t is we'll to remember,
| by the way, that the Pole Star is just about
half way between Cassiopeia and the handle
of the Dfpper. Between Cassiopeia and the
stars, though none OF the first magnitude.
This constellation can be recognized by
| curved line of stars pointing upward to
Cassiopeia.
A Most Remarkable Star.
In line parallel to a tangent to this
curve are two other bright stars, the upper
and brighter one of which is probably the
| most remarkable star in the whole heavens.
1t is the famous Algol or Demon, as the
Arabs called IL, and has this year been of
special interest to astronomers on account
or the startling Investigations into its pecu-
| liarities by Mr.. S. C. Chandler. For many
centuries this star has waxed and waned in
brightness with the most systematic regu-
Iarity. For about go hours it shines as a star
| of the second magnitude; then it begins to
fade and in four hours and half it sinks to
the fourth magnitude. But this observation
II
gains its former brllliancy in about four
hours and half more. Many ingenious
theories have been put forth to account for
this regular variation. The most reasonable
seemed to be that its loss Of light is caused
by tile tnterposition at regular intervals of
q huge dark body between US and Algol. Or
| in other words that Algol. which is q sun.
and some dark body revolve around a COM
mon center of gravity in a regular period.
Observations by Vogel with the spectre
scope have confirmed this theory in. the
most remarkable way, and the evidence in
| its favor is now accepted by astronomers as
almost conclusive.
The brightest star in the curved line of
| Perseus is Algenib. Ii the reader will
| trouble himself to take look at this star
| through an opera glass on a clear night, my
word for it that he'll be astonished at the
| beauty of the field of stars which the glass
brings into view about it. Ranged in curv-
| ing lines a host of stars follow Algenib from
| the east and south, a countless swarm OF
| tiny lights that even glass of very moder-
| ate power will bring into view.
One of the Conspicuous Objects.
Now start from the Pole Star and follow
| an imaginary line from it to the most west
erly of the bright stars of Cassiopeia. This
| line continued about us far beyond Cas-
siopeia as Cassiopeia is from the Pole Star
! will bring the eye to two second magnitude
| stars in the same line as the one we follow,
| and about Is degrees apart. These two form
| one side Of the great Square of Pegasus,
which can now be easily recognized, q con-
| spicuous object high up in the western sky.
The great irregularly shaped constellation
of Andromeda lies just southeast OF CASH