Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-01
THE STARS TONIGHT.
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH,

|
hung out his glowing shield as sample OF
a first rate advertisements of heavenly Won
ders, he is now modestly falling behind our
swifter earth in the flight around the sun.
So let us turn our own eyes to the skies and
take look at the September programme,
which ought to furnish something at least
| as interesting as the old war-god who has
SO selhshly monopolized our attention dur
ing August. The latter will still continue to
! lead the march of planets across the sky, and
| at the close of twilight on september l is
well on his way to the meridian. About $50
| each evening Jupiter appears in the east and
as soon as he has risen well out of the m1sts
| OF the horizon. shines with a brillfancy even
| SURPRISING that of Mars, even though handi-
| capped by distance of over 400, 1000, 600
miles, which seems quite formidable con-
pared with Mars insig niflcant little 81, 0O0,-
600 miles. But then Jupiter makes up for
| that disadvantage by his vast siZe for, as
| BELTS the king of gods and men. he is not
only 1000 times as large as Mars, but is even
larger than all the other planets put to-
gether. The third and last to appear fs
| Venus, the matchless queen of the skies,
| who will peep above the eastern hills little
before A. NJ, just in time to give sweet
smile at the distant Mars in the van before
| he sinks out of sight in the Southwest.
Heavenly To.chlight Procession.
AND so we have royal torchlight pro-
| cession which will move across the sky
| every night of the month-an array, though
small in number, vet SO brilliant that
Messrs. Harrity and Carter would doubtless
| be glad to engage it for the coming CAM
paign.
To be sure the last division is rather late
appearing; but the belated and muddled
citiZnn q L the lodge
or club can have in this circumstance
brand new excuse with which TO appease
the lady in white.
The mo on of this month Is the well-known
harvest moon; so-calIed because its rounded
disc rises bout sunset Tor several success
i've evenings and helps the busy harvester
by adding a little more light to the now rap
idly shortening days. The moon is full on
the 9Th, but two DAYS earlier, on the 4th, it
affords us the first interesting sight of the
month by passing within less than a degree
of Mars. The two in close conf junction will
make very striking appearance, put two
days later the full moon will pass even
nearer to Jupiter. In fact, the lord of the
heavens narrowly escapes an occultation by
our satellite. 1t is hardly necessary to re-
mind the reader that these near approaches
to the planets are only apparent. as even
Mars is more than $50 times as far from us as
the moon is.
But we mustn't be SO narrow-mtnded as
only to take an interest in our puny little
solar system where distances are measured
only by the millions of miles, Let us cut
loose from the earth and try to grasp things
as they really are, not rs they seem from
our tiny planet.
Then our sun Immediately dwindles into
an ordinary star, perhaps smaller than the
average, and this handful Of satellites even
%t,x c;rl-e i,fo
so absolute that 4O-foot object glass could
never even detect them from the depths of
space.
In the Rea rms OF IDfinity.
WE are now in the realms of infnity;
trillions of miles ut the lowest calculation
must be traversed to reach one star from
another. These self-luminous bodies which
seem so tiny to an observer on the earth
surpass our planets in size as q mountain
does a mouse The figures representing
their distances from the earth are meaning
less to our finite minds: but we can form a
fair idea Of the immensely of these dis
tances in this way: Glance at group of
houses or trees quarter of a mile away;
then take dozen steps and you
will see they have noticeably changed
their positions with reference to
each other. We, perform the same expert
ment on a large scale every six months, but
not with the same result Perhaps you no
ticed the Dipper last March. If So look at
it now. Has it changed It's shape or appear
ance in the slightest? Not a bit of it; and
yet since March the earth has changed its
position by the diameter of It's orbit, or 19O-
900. 600 miles.
We must conclude then that 19O O01, 900
miles is quite an tnconsiderable quantity
when applied to stellar distances. If you
have never tried to realize this fact before,
the stars ought to have a new meaning for
you as you take another look at them and
make an attempt to grasp their immensity.
Brighter Stars Now Visible.
SOME of the brightest stars in the sky
are now visible. Follow the handle of the
dipper toward the southeast, and you can
not miss the glitter of Arcturus, the chief
twinkler in the constellation of Bootes
Now look directly overhead and you will
see an equally bright star shining down on
you from the constellation of the Lyre. This
is Vega, and close comparison of it with
Arcturus will show decided difference in
color, the former having oluish tinge and
the latter ruddy glow like Mars. About
II O'Clock third star of the first magnitude
may be seen rising in the northeast, just un-
der the well-lenown consultations of Cassio-
peia and Perseus. Glittering in the midst
of the lesser lights which form the constella-
tion of Auriga, the pearly white Capella
comes up to dispute the sovereignty of the
northern heavens with Autumn and Vega.
These are sometimes called the three north
ern brilliants, and with the exception of
Sirius, are the brightest stars visible in this
latitude. Though forming notable trio
they can scarcely rival the beauty of our
three neighbors in the southern skies There
are many other easily distinguished con-
stellations but we have not space this morn
ing to enumerate them all. The observer
certainly ought to notice the beautiful
Northern Cross set in the milky way little
to the northeast of the Lyre. 1t is COM
posed ofsecond magnitude stars and is part
of the constellation of the Swan. The
square of Pegasus is easily recognized ris-
in. in the southeast, and the writhing
Scorpion with the reddish first magnitude
star Anuares ought not to be overlooked. 1t
lies far to the south near the horizon and
little to the west of the Milky way. Besides
being a very fair imitation OF the figure of
scorpion, thisrconstelation also presents the
figure of large kite upside down with An
tares at one corner.
With the exception of Auriga these con-
stellations may be seen in these positions at
9P. M. September 1-this evening.
THE DISPATCH readers should look out for
them, WYLIE.
WON A BRIDE AND SAVED A FORTUNE.