Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-02


of south: Affair. in the west. and Vega, in
the northwest.
The Square of Pegasus has just crossed
the meridian. The two stars which form
the eastern side of this striking quadrangle
lar figure lie very nearly in line with the
Nernal Equinox. thus serving as pointers,
by means ofjwhsch this very important as
Economical position can be, located read
lily. 1t is situated south of the square. at
distance from the lower of the two point
ers." rather greater than their distance
apart
November Dis pre-eminently the meteor
month. Although meteorS may be seen at
every season of the year-in fact, not night
passes in which an attentive observer may
not see in an hours watching one or more
of these Shooting stars''-this month is
marked by two especially interesting groups
of meteors, the 'iLeonids.' which are due on
the nights of the 18th and 14th of the month,
and the "Andromedes.' due on the 18th
29th. 1t is in this month, too, that have
occurred the greatest number and the most
| remarkable of those startling phenomena
known as meteor showers" o.
The nature of these beautiful celestial
objects, which are popularity COMPOUNDED
with stars and which were long a puzzle
to astronomers. is now well understood.
So different are they from the stars that,
while the stars are at an almost unthink-
able distance from us. the, meteor, when
seen, is in the earths atmosphere and is
rarely more than fifty or seventy-ve miles
away. Its appearance is an accident. I'm
der ordinary circumstances the meteor is
an invisible body.
Besides the planets and comets there are
circling round the sun, and therefore forming
a part of the solar system. innumerable mi
mute particles or small masses of matter,
which, in the words of Professor Newton,
may be thought of without serious error
as being of the size of gravel stones" and
which may therefore be regarded as sort
of cosmical dust. These minute celestial
bodies are associated in SHOALS clusters,
millions of them travelling round the :,un
in the same orbit. Their movement may be
likened to the march of a mighty army. A
main body which may be many millions
of miles in length and thousands of miles
in breadth. and which is made up of ind:-
vidualS that are rarely less than two or
three hundred miles apart, is followed by
stragglers that have in the course of time
become separated from the main body and
are scattered in greater or less profusiou
along the entire line of march.
The orbits of these meteors, like those of
comets, with which they are now known to
be intimately related. wind about the sun
in all directions. Some of them cross the
earth's orbit; and it is to this circumstance
that owe our knowledge of the exist
ence of these minute bodies When the earth
encounters one of these meteor streams it
plunges through it with a reckless speed of
more than eighteen miles a second, and woe
to the luckless meteor that stands in it's
way.
FriShtful Collision.
The meteor itself is in RAPID motion. and
moving in a contrary direction. The COLI
sion is a frightful one and is always fatal
to the meteor. Entering the earth's atmos-
phere with speed of fifty or a hundred
times that of a rifle ball, it quickly becomes
heated by the friction of the air to redness,
to whiteness. and usually within second
of time it has been melted and consumed,
with momentary streak of splendor
A meteor may make it's appearance in
wi Of ha haa ND tab
direction athwart the sky. Those belonging
to the same system, however. always move
IN the same direction. Their tracks, as
we see them projected on the sky. are
really parallel to one another or nearly
so; yet from the laws of perspective they
appear to radiate flom some central point.
The position of this radiant" among the
stars has been chosen as a convenient
means of naming each systemt. The lie
onids'' are SO called because their radiant
rs III the constellation Leo, near the star
Gamma in the Sickle. The radiant of the
"Andromedes'' is in the consolidate An
dromeda. ~
Ordinarily the earth in it's passage through
a meteor stream encounters only the stray
glers: but occasionally the main body of
the army lies across its path, and then it
is that the fall of meteorS becomes a YER
table shower. The most remarkable of
these grand and terrifying phenomena have
cur at intervals of about thrty-three years,
this being the time required by the main
cluster to perform it's revolution around
the sun.
The next shower may be looked for in
The "Andromedes' are especially inter-
esting from the fact that they are thought
to be the fragments of Biela's comet, which
has not been seen since 1852. This comet
had a period of siX-and-a-half years. Its
orbit was nearly, if not quite, identical
with this meteor stream. Annually, when
the earth crosses it. in the latter part of
November, meteors are encountered, and
in those years in which the lost comet is
due they are exceptionally numerous. The
last shower of Andromedes occurred in
, 1892; the next is due in 1899. In the latter
part OF November the radiant of this sys-
TEN is nearly in the zenith at 10 pm, so
that meteors belonging to it, seen at that
hour. will appear to fall from point di-
rectly overhead.
The Planets.
Nerus is now splendid morning star.
It shone with its greatest brilliancy on
the 9TH of last month. On the 10Th of this
month it will be at it's greatest elonga ton
| (angular distance) west from the sun.
Mercury also is morning star and is
now visible in the east at daybreak. 1t