The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-26
THAT METEOR.
1t and Several Others Made an I'm
preston in Florida.
From tho Mauatee Advocate.

On Sunday night, Aug. IL, we sud-
denly found ourselves face to face with
the new moon and Venus in conjunction
that is, very near together; and oh, what
a beautiful sight and then the way the
moon was poised but added a new beauty
TO the scene. The sudden flashes of
lightning near the horizon, with the at
! mosphere so full of electricity, indicated
dry weather and surely the purity of the
atmosphere means better health, and
! consequently more happiness for all.
AS we gazed on that charming sight in
the western heavens we could but think
how many, many people will look with
pleasure upon this same scene, and how
we have sat for hours gazing upon this
same moon, with her dim lovely light,
when hundreds Of miles from those we
loved best, and wondered if it were posi-
bic that they were looking upon the same
moon, which seemed 80 near, and yet
was so far away"
The moon and Venus were a little more
| than. an hour behind old Sol, who had
sunk to rest in all his glory
Venus, the goddess of love and beauty,
and the brightest star in the heavens,
shone with a brilliant luster, and the
moon was unusually bright and to think
they had travelled all day so close together
and just behind the sun, while we knew
nothing about it, and then we thought
what lesson for everybody, old and
young, but especially children.
Now all this beauty was eclipsed on
Monday night.
When boy at school, we loved to hear
and talk of 'meteOrs that flashed along
| the sky" and Sunday night was not with
out its meteOrs TO remind us Of Aud
Lang Syne," but never have we seen such
! meteors as we saw Monday night
The writer was standing in the front
| yard about 10 o'clock, facing southwark
with his attention attracted by the merry
voices of people on the streets Just after
the lecture. Suddenly an intense bright
light shone all around, and turning, ex-
pecting to see q lantern, we saw instead
meteor in the northeast; it came from or
near Casiaopeia, andnite light dazzled the
eye.
A young man across the street called
out look look what strong light; and
| there it remained for some time, bril-
liant strong line of light, about seven or
eight degrees in length, or as one might
say about as long as ten-foot pole. Its
direction was southeast
This directed our attention to the star
ry heavens which never appeared more
beautiful, not even in the north con
clear, cold winters night" and we saw
the milky way extending from the north
east to the southwest, perfect line OF
| golden beauty; the northeast terminus
| was in cluster Of bright stars of the first
| and second magnitude, and in the shape
| of an arrowhead, point downwards,
while that Of the southwest was amongst
many similar stars, but with the arrow
| head reversed, reminding one of exper-
| iments in philosophy, where balls sus-
| pended by strings and set in motion have
| diverged.
Occasionally small meteors appeared,
I Il ~. }
| Vega, in the beautiful constellation of
| Lyra, looked placidly down from almost
! directly overhead when suddenly, Just
| about II O'Clock from near Aquila, south
east Of the point overhead--the zenith,
another bright meteor darted towards
! the southeast.
This last was not 50 bright as the
| first, but like it. 1t left similar line of
! light. Persons who did not see them
missed a sight, not only beautiful, but
! startling; sight only of a lifetime.
AS the Milky Way gradually faded to-
wards midnight, another beauty came
! into view; it was the constellation PIE
/ aides, with Jupiter, king of the gods, just
behind, both rising together through a
mist that oyerhung the Manatee, and
! their dim light looked beautiful as they
! journeyed on together
Just then a bright star of the first
magnitude appeared to the north, and
we wondered what is that} And then
we thought of our school-bOy days again,
and the story we loved to read, where
the little child kept asking, and what is
that, motherl Well, let's see, that star
is north of the line of the zodiac, and be-
longs to the polar consultations
We will have to get our astronomy and
look it up. And then we tried TO repeat
the verse about the armament declar-
! ing the handiwork, and the heavens the
glory of God" but we could not get them
exactly right. We had seen enough for
one time, but we made up our mind to
read up our astronomy and study our
Bible more Us.
Braidentown, Fla, Aug. Is, 1898.