The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-04-12
THE FULL MOON.
An Event Today Determining the Time
for Easter.

for Easter.
Inc fuil moon of today holds the most
important place on the lunar records of
the year. 1t is the first full moon after the
vernai equinox. and it determines, accord
ing 70 ecclesiastical usage, that Easter
snal fali on the following Sunday. As
THIS FESTIVAL Is the most ancient and i'm
portant OF all the movable feast of the
CHRISTIAN church, it determines all the
other movable feasts and fasts The full
moon on the 18th is, therefore, the pivot
on which Easter turns, and is indirectly
the regulator of the movable feasts and
fasts of 1892.
on Saturday. three days before the full,
the moon and Saturn were in conjunction,
ana on Wednesday there is conjunction
with Uranus. On the 10Th the earth's
satellite draws as near Mars as it will get
Tor the month. Jupiter's turn comes on
the 24th, just two days before the new
moon, which shows the planet to be quite
close to the sun and on the side opposite
mat on which We last saw him. OPPOSE
ton with Mercury occurs on the 18th and
with Neptune on the 2sth, the growing
crescent being but two days older. The
closest as well as the last meeting for the
month is on the 10Th with Venus, in which
Is promised a very pretty picture as only
three minutes of arc separate the two
bodies, distance so slight that it will
hardly be perceptible to unaided vision.
The two will be drawing closer and closer
throughout the evening, and it will be al
most midnight before they are at their
closest. 1t will probably be somewhat
hard to realize that the planet is three and
half times the size of the moon, but the
greater distance from the earth of course
accounts for the moon being apparently
the larger.
There will be total eclipse of the sun
on the 26th, which, unfortunately, will
not be visible in this portion of the world.
The area over which this eclipse will be
visible extends quite generally over the
South Pacific ocean, including the ex-
treme vest coast of South America on the
one hand and New Zealand on the other.
Venus reaches one goal in her path
early in the morning of the 30th, when
she will be at the point of greatest eastern
elongation from the sun; the space be-
tween the two will then be 45 degrees "a
minutes. From that time she will be re-
tracing her steps toward the center of the
solar system, with which she will be in in
ferior conjunction on July9 9.
Today Venus and Neptune are in con-
junction, but the meeting is not very
close one, nor has it any important sig
nificance.
Mercury is evening star until the 10Th,
at which date it is in inferior conjunction
and joins the galaxy of morning stars. He
is quite exceptional in many ways, is the
swiftest of the planets, and hustles along
his very eccentric orbit at from twenty
three to thirty-ive miles second. Mer-
curry keeps so close to the sun that he is in
visible to the naked eye, except at his
periods of greatest elongation, when he
may be seen as beautiful star of the first
magnitude, with slight twinkle and a
clear white color.
Saturn comes next to Venus as an object
of planetary interest, as he is in sight al
most all night throughout the month, and
is at present in quite favorable situation
for observation, low down in the eastern
sky an hour or two after sunset. He is all
the more conspicuous from the fact that
there are no very brilliant stars in his i'm
mediate vicinity. He is moving to the
westward, but at so slow pace that he
seems to be ever in about the same place.
He is in the constellation of Virgo, and is
getting gradually further away from the
earth.