The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-02-05
JUPITER And VENUS IN CON-
JUNCTION.

This evening shortly after sunset
Jupiter and Venus may be seen IN
conjunctlon-that is IN close prox-
unity with each other-in the
western sky. The moon, more
over, Will lend additional beauty to
the spectacle. 1t may be we'll to
suggest few Of those things learnt
at school, but easily forgotten,
which may add interest to mere
appreciation of spectacular lowell
ness. L must apologize for the
elementary character of my re-
marks, but they are intended for
the unscientific. The first thing
noticeable will be that Jupiter,
Venus and the moon are nearly in
a straight line, which almost coin
eides with the ecliptic or apparent
path of the sun. From this cir
cumstance may be gathered the
fact that the planets revolve round
the sun in orbits almost parallel.
l take it for granted that everybody
knows that Jupiter and Venus are
planets, and not stars, properly So
called. By this is meant that they
revolve round the sun, Just as the
earth does, and are not, like the
majority of heavenly bodies, far off |
suns. They shine with the re-
Elected or intercepted light of the
sun; although Jupiter probably |
emits a small proportion Of light Of !
his own.
The moon, as seen from
,he earth, looks very much
arger than either Jupiter or
Venus. In fact, neither CT these
after can be seen at all by the un-
iided eye. 1t is possible for US to
see nothing but the light they re
1ect. They are too far off to pre-
sent any outline. Just as we can
zee the light of candle placed be-
ore Il reflector from q distance
efficient. to destroy all trace of the
andIe itself. Again, Venus APP
'ears much brighter than Jupiter
o us; whereas, in point of magni-
ade, Jupiter is hundreds of times
,reater than both Venus and the
noon put together, with the earth
brown IN, and Venus is much
anger than the moon. Thus we
ce that apparent brightness de-
ends not on actual size, but on
distance, Venus is
cry nearly the same size as the
arth, whose axis measures nearly
900 miles. The moons axis is
Oughly speaking 1000 miles in
,ngth, while Jupiter measures
lore than $4,000 miles from pole
} pole. The moons distance from
lie earth is in the nelghborhood of
10000 miles. There is q space of
ore than 3O,000,O00 miles between .
lrselves and Venus, while Jupiter :
yeeps round the sun at distance
ON Us of nearly 800, 100000 miles.
erhaps q comparison may bring s
lis fact home to Us. If the distance ,
the moon from the earth be re-
by one yard, then Venus
ould be 125 yards away, while R
lpiter would be distant nearly f.
lie and quarter. To get some E
ca then of the real position of the
rec heavenly bodies which to- l
ght will seem almost to touch R
ID at the same time to represent
ughly their comparative magni-
des, place q walnut for the earth,
en- at the distance of one inch
ace o small marble for the moon, I
ain q walnut ten feet away for P
enus, while a football at u dis f
nee of 1872 feet may fairly repre- =
Mt Jupiter Those who have L
'od telescopes may be able to
tect the moons of Jupiter of
hich he has four, and the sight J
which will deepen the beauty
ID the mystery of the scene. I
F. NJ. ENGLISH.