Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1892-08-03
IS, MARS INHABITED +?
ACQUISITION That May Quickly
Be Settled.
ASTRONOMERS ON THE ouI WYE

The Planet VIII Tonight BE Nearer
Years--with the New Lick telescope
Great Discoveries Are Anticipated.
LICK OBSERVATORY, Ca, Aug. 3.-The
'red star of war" now flaming in the
southeastern skies is the chief object of
the astronomers gaze. The present great
stir about Mars lis easily explained. To-
night it viii be In opposition-i. e., the
Earth will come directly between the rud-,
dy planet and the sun, thus affording an
unusually favorable and long coveted OPP
portunity for telescopists to scan its fea-
lures, to watch its two tiny moons, to
detect his ice caps and perhaps to deter
mime whether his so-called ''canals" really
bear any trace of the workmanship of ami
lnahed inhabitants.
The path of Mars in his journey around
che sun is not regular curve. So great
Ids its eccentricity that when near perihe-
lion the planet is about 13, 900 miles nearer
the central luminary of our system than
| when it approaches aphelion. Tonight
Mars will be near perihelion, and it is
only about $4,000, 900 miles from the
earth-a very short distance for even an
ordinary telescope to span.
But the mammoth Lick telescope mag
| nify1ng 700 times, brings the red planet
to within a range of $4,000 miles, or but
a little more than one-f1fth of the dis
lance of our own silvery moon.
Moreover, at this period Mars is at one
side of the earth, while the sun is at the
| opposite side-a fact which contributes
very considerably to favorable observa-
| tions of the planet. No equally favorable
opportunity for studying Mars will recur
till the year 1909.
Are the people on Mars trying to signal
the earth3
That is the question which the work of
the Lick telescope during the past few
days has aroused, as Mars has approached
nearer. It will be remembered that Mars
only became subject of extreme import
ance Is years ago, when it last approached
Earth. At that time not only were its
two moons discovered by an American,
but wise men in the observatory at Milan
were enabled to show almost conclusive
1y that human life existed on the planet
The strides which Disappointing has
taken during the intervening years hav e
produced the Lick telescope, and this has
mot only justified the expectations of it's
| makers, but has already added some
startling facts to what was already known
about the red orb.
Mars has not only well recognized at
mosphere Of its own, but four seasons of
the year which follow each other as those
Of the earth, degree of war NTH closely
approximating what is known here, a day
| of little over "a hours, north and south
poles with ice and snow and every natural
condition apparently which should con-
Once to the existence of animal life.
The work Of Schnaparelli, the ancient
Milan astronomer, plays a most impor-
tant part in the observations now being
made at the Lick Observatory. After
long and careful observation during the
last opposition of Mars, fifteen years ago,
he was enabled to map its surface in a
way which went far to strengthen the
contention of those scientists who main
| tanned that it was inhabited by highly
civilized race.
His work was in effect to show that the
surface of the planet had been transform
ed in a manner unknown in any of the
other heavenly bodies. There were con-
figurations, as he demonstrated, which,
| if they were the work of nature, have been
| repeated nowhere else, not even on the
earth, which Mars SO closely resembles.
The canals have been adjudged the work
of superior race of beings, and this the
| DRY is augmented by the discovery this
week of three great lights in the south
| west of the planet which, it Is believed,
are signals by which the inhabitants are
trying to attract attention.