St. Landry democrat., 1892-08-20

earth is thus passing between Mars an,
the sun the planet is said to be Gin on
position, "'because it then is just opposit
to the sun III tho sky, rising at sunse
ana remaining visible all night long
ana II the opposition occurs at one o
the points OF close approach betWee1
the orbits, it is said to be favorable
opposition" and is regarded BY astron
omers as an opportunity to be mad.
much OF, since it comes only once in Il
years.
fl.tccn years ago Prof. Hall of oul
national observatory at Washington
discovered the two little satellites OF
moons which circle around the planet
a discovery which was regarded with
the, greatest interest by all astronomers
and conferred Immortality on the for.
| tunate observer. 1t is perhaps hardly
to be expected that any discovery OF
such capital importance is likely to bt
made this year, but all the great tele-
scopes of the world, and a host of small.
er ones, are turned upon the planets
every nj gilt i'll the hopes of finding out
something new and worth knowing.
We must not imagine, however, tina,
because tho planet is only 35,0OO,O0C
miles away it is exactly within "hailing
distance" Even now Mars is almost
100 times as far away as the moon, and
while with powerful telescopes it is DOS
slble to make out some of the leading
features OF the planets geography it is
hopelessly impossible to recognize the
minor details,
Mars is a very interesting planet, be-
cause on the whole 1t more resembles
the earth III its nature and conditions
,,f It.,x l,.,,
With which We are acquainted. There.
it anywhere, there might be life such Az
we lave upon the earth. Aud yet it is
10y 30 means u duplicate of the earth :
it is only about 1900 miles in diameter
Gust double the size of the moon), and
the extent Of its surface is therefore on
~ about one third as great as that of
the earth, while its mass is but one
min tn on its surface bodies weigh only a
little more than third what they would
weigh on the earth the air is thinner
than here, and clouds and storms ppear
TO De much less prevalent than with us.
while the temperature seems to 10 high
er, though this is by no means vet fully
proved 1t is difficult to explain WHY it
should be 80, since the suns heat at
Mars is only about half as powerful as
here.
On account Of the great changes in the
pianet's distance from US its apparent
SIZE and brightness alter greatly from
time to time.
At present the planet is an extremely
beautiful object, even in small teles-
cope; the surface is delcately tinted
with various shades of color, rudy pre-
Valllng though there are spots of blu
lsh green, and some which are dazzling.
y white. In fact, the most striking fea-
ture at present is the Offering ice-cap
tat least 1T Is believed to be ice or snow
which covers the south pole of the plan
ct. lt IS unusually large this season,
having had a diameter OF fully thous-
ana miles about July 1, but it is rapidly
shllnklng as the sun rises higher upon
the Southern Hemisphere. The north
ern pole is now tipped away from the
sun ana earth, so that the northern ice
cap ls seen only as a mere streak of
hsnt along the edge of the disc.
Next to the ice. cap the greenish "seas
ana oceans" as they are called and be-
lleved to be, stand In the order of con-
splcuousness' They girdle the planets
equator almost completely, and the
most noticeable of them are shaped
much like the Bay of BengaI-pointed.
with the point directed toward the
North. '"o
AS for tllesland masses, which on Mars
cover fully two thirds of the whole snr-
lace, they are all reddish or orange, but |
not OF uniform hue, different kinds of |
SOIL ana rock representing tints that add |
/ CHARMING variety to the view. On |
ne average, however, the color, Accord
ng TO Prot. Pickering, is pretty accu-
'atoly matched by that of the standard
New Jersey mud.
Anotllerfeaturc of the planet about
winch there has been great deal said
IL late is system of" canals" as thew
ave been called by their discoyereT.
,,chlaparelli, a Milanese astronomer
According to him they look like fine
lalr-llke lines, some of which appear to
IN out from the points of the bavs or
'ulfs, While others cross them in yari-
us directions, covering the whole land
urlace with an Intricate network,
w nateVer they may be, it is quito GER
ain tliat tiley cannot possibly be canals
ahy sucn sense as we are familiar
'ith upon the earth, i. e., artificial wa
CT courses, nor indeed hardly water
curses at all. Within the last few
Ieeks tue writer has had a number of
Aquislte views OF the planet with the
teaC Telescope at Princeton. and while
10 otner Weli-knoWn markings upon
le planets surface came out clear and
;r,ong, along with others which were
My temporary Clouds, probably. he
as not yet been able to see anything in
le least resem bling the description of
le canals-nothing more than mere ir-
'gular shadlngs. The plauot is 80 far
'uth In the sky that our northern Oh
'fVatorles are, however, at a disadyan-
ge, and we shall wait with interest tn
ear the report from the South Ameri-
IN observers, who have the planet
9arly overhead. o'