The Portland daily press., 1894-06-04

northeast, with the lnlm1table Vega, shark
ling above them like diamond shaken il
the sun. The last star in the handle of til,
Great Dipper is almost eactly overhead, ant
near it, but visible only with a telescope
is Lord Ross's Whirlpool Nebula, one of tn,
greatest marvels of the universe. Not fla,
from the zenith in sout heaterly direction
CLEAN the beautiful eirclet of stars, forninl
the Northern Crown, and between that ant
the brilliant Vega, is Hercule. Four stars
forming an irregular square, mark it's cen
tire. The Imagination of the ancient Greel
found something strange and awesome il
the sky there. They did not name tho
constellation, las the lines fromAratus show
Near to the Dragons head, in toil-spent
posture
Revolves phantom. whose name none car
tell,
Nor what he lahors at.
Later the name of Hercules was given tt
this region of the sky 1t contains cele
brated star-cluster, visible as hazy specb
to the naked eye, and revealing to power
full telescopes the spectacle of at least loom
suns swarming in a glittering knot! Witt
ordinary telescopes the central stars are
mingled in an inextrcable maze, but with
e-AS
cluster resolved into separate stars to its
very core.
1t is toward that part of space in which
the stars of Hercules shine that we are NOV.
ing at the rate of hundred millions of
miles in year. About half way beween
Arc turus and the Northern Crown second
magnitude star will be noticed. This is
Epsilon Boots, one of the most beautiful OF
the double stars. A telescope of moderate
power separates it into two stars, one OF
which is a rich orange lin color, while the
other is cross between a sapphire and an
emerald. To some observers it appears
green, to others blue, but in either case the
color delights the eye with luminous splen-
dor.
In writing Of the great distance and prob
ably immense magnitude of Arcturus some
time ago did not mention the fact that
that luminary. which exceeds our sun sew
eral thousand times, perhaps, in light-gir-
ing power, is apparently runaway in the
universe. AS far as is known at present
Arcturus is both the largest and the most
swiftly moving body in the stellar heavens
Its calculated velocity is no less than 375
miles in second, or 81, 4oO,O miles in day!
approaches the earth at the rate of 8, 450, OoC
miles a day. But even if it were rushing at
us in a straight line, $4,000 years would
e1apse before the encounter could take
place. Nobody has been able to guess how
Arcturus got started at it's present rate OF
travelling, or where it's journey will end. If
it is only gigantic visitor to our system
of suns then it will pass through the visible
universe, and, in the course of millions of
years, disappear from It. And if any men,
Der of our system should, through too close
approach, become a satellite of Arcturus,
it would inevitably be borne away prison
er into the unfathomed, and, by human
eyes, unseen depths of illimitable space
Southwest of Arcturus Satura will still be
visible throughout the moth, in the neigh
borhood of Spica, the bright star Virgo. This
magnificent planet-the Greater Infortune''
of the astrologers, but the Greater Fortune
of the astronomers, since it's telescope at
fractions have drawn popular interest and
support to the science as no other single
object has done-remains the most conspicu-
GUS member of the planetary system now
on exhibition. If the beauty of it's graceful
rings had been revealed to the founders OF
astrology they would probably have hesitat
ed before declaring that so comedy a planet
was responsible for the greater part of
all the evils that have have been inflicted
upon mankind"
jupiter will finally disappear from the
evening sky at the beginning of the month.
going into conjunction with the sun in the
morning of the 4th, to emerge in the sum-
mer morning star. In fact there will be a
very interesting assemblage of planets in
the Immediate neighborhood of the sun at
the opening of June. Jupiter, Neptune,
Venus, Mercury and the moon will form
a brilliant body-guard to the god of day.
Venus is still morning star and is rapidly
approaching the sun. Neptune like Jupiter,
is just passing from the evening sky, and
on the LIST they will be in conjunction, less
than degree apart. Mercury is near them,
but moving in the opposite direction, so that
in the last half of the month it will be far
enough from the sun to be visible as an
evening star. 1t attains it's greatest distance
from the sun on the morning of the 23d, and
it should be easily seen in the sunset sky on
the evenings of the I'D and 3d. Mercury
is now hurrying away from it's hot perihelion
and before getting between the sun and
earth in July it will have receded 14000 600
miles further from the solar orb than it was
of the ed of May. If we could move 14,00o,-
900 miles away from the sun in the course of
the next six weeks we should have the cold
est summer on record, but unfortunately
for people who dislike warm weather the
earth is able to increase it's distance only
100000 miles between midwinter and mid
summer.
New moon occurs on June ga few minutes
before o'clock in the evening. The grow
ing crescent will appear on the 9th in the
edge of.Canoer, and when it attains the
phase of first quarter, on the 10th, at 8.l4
n the morning it will be near the star
Beta in Virgo. Full moon falls on the
18th at about in the morning, when the
lunar orb will be seen among the stars of
the Milk Dipper in Sagittarius. Last quar-
ter occurs in Pisces at s o'clock in the MORN
ing Of the 18th. The moon will be nearest
the earth OF in perigee about midnight on
June 4. At the same time it will not be far
out of a line joining the earth and the sun.
Those two bodies consequently will unite
their tide-raising forces nearly at the mo-
ment when the moons ptw is greatest.
The effect will be to produce on the even