Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-06-06

must always appear out of its true place
except when, may happen with some of
the stars, are moving directly towards
or directly from them-its apparent place
continually shifting the earth moves in
| its orbit. The displacement, to be sure,
very slight-nOt more than twenty seconds
of an angular measurement at the most,
a quantity quite inappreciable to the naked
eye-but it is a matter of which the as
tronomer must continually take account in
determining stars true position. One of
his constant corrections of his observed
position of star is for this "aberration,'
since he never sees Il star exactly where
ii is. with the exception of the case above
noted. Seine idea of the minuteness of the
alteration elipse may be formed when it
Is said that fifty such ellipses strung to-
sether in chain would a little more than
reach across the face of the moon Yet
twenty times as great that caused by
parallaX in the nearest star.
The Planets
Three of the plarets will b., above the
horizon at o'clock tonight. Jupiter, too
brilliant to be mistaken for ar ordinary
star, VIII be found at that hour low in the
west 1t is SIN a magnificent object for
the raked-eye observer and still makes a
flne show In telescope. although it Is
new mCre than 10000 600 miles further
from us than when we passed between it
S2tUln is now the most attractive of the
planets. and is row in the height of his
season as IN evening star His opposi-
ton TO the sum- when he crossed the meri-
Guam at midnight ana shcne at his bright
est. occurred on the 9TH of last month. but
since that date his distance from us-about
eight and a half times that of the SIM
mas not Inc leased enough to cause any ap-
lfeciablc difference in his apDearance
through a telescope anG he is row we'll
above the horizon at a seasonable hour
saturn new stands midway between the
bright star Spica and Antares, as is shown
on the planispl ere 1t appears az an or
arge yellow star of the first magnitude
very closely resembling Arcturus, with
which and Spica 1t forms a large triangle
OF TWO nearly equal sides. The planet lies
nearly between Alpha and Beta I.ibrae
two stars Of the third magnitude about ten
degrees aptrt-tie distance across the bowl
OF the Great Dipper. II is Row retrograd-
ing, or II ewing westward, can easily be
observed Ey netting It's change of position
from mis- 1T to night with reference to these
TWO stars. Saturn is now in the part of the
zodiac traverscd by the srn in November
Accordingly 1t runs low for observers In
the northern hemisphere, but otherwise it
Is In one of its best positions for observ-
ing. The rings are now open nearly to
their widest, so that what is known as
taSslhi $ dlVlsion'-the dark space which
separates the two bright rings-can easily
be seen with a good telescope which mag
mites hundred and fifty times and good
hve-inch telescope In a favorable state OF
the atmosphere will show Enthusiastically
the grippe or gauZe' ring, discovered
by the Bonds In 1850.
wondrous Hinged World.
So many good drawings of Saturn have
been published in recent years that every
one who has even the mos. superficial
IDEA of how this v'ondrcus ringed world
looks in the field of a telescope But
no one who has never seen 1T for himself
can have more than a feeble Impression of
Its Surpassing beauty as q telescope OBJ
Ject. 1t is only, too, when we actually see
1t and realize that what We are looking at
Is no mere picture, but the thing itself,
that We ale Gtruck forcibly with the great
mystery of it's gigantic rings, which. small
as they appear in the telescope, have
diameter of 10000 miles
What are they? They appear to be solid
but La Place demonstrated fundamentally
that they could not be solid and maintain
their equilibrium. 1t has been shown too
that they cannot be fluid The view which
Of late years has been held. as the only al
tentative, is that they consist of millions of
minute bOdies-met eortes-each Of which
circles round the planet in its own orbit
as g minute satellite. On this view the in
ner margin of the ring should circle faster
than the outer, the difference in their rates
Of motion being easily calculated Recent
ly Professor Keeler of the Allegheny OBJ
servatory has found by observation with
the spectroscope that this Is the case-that
the inner margin moves faster than the
outer, the observed difference in their rates
being that required by theory. within the
limits of probable error of observation.
About five degrees to the southeast OF
Saturn is the planet Uranus, appearing as
a star of about the sixth magnitude and
therefore just visible to a person with ex-
Ctuent eyesight. 1t can be seen by any one
with an opera glass TIE find It point the
glass first to Saturn; then move it to the
left and downward. and as Saturn passes
out of the field Uranus will come into view
There are two or three stars here which are
liable to be mistaken for the planet but q
few nights observation will decide the
cFoice among them, for the planet Is now
moving slowly toward the west.
About the Moon.
After the 9th of the month Mercury will
be morning star, and by the close of the
month it will be visible in the east in the
morning twilight
Venus is still morning star, but she is
ROW too near the sun to be visible
Mars has crossed the celestial equator and
is now in the northern hemisphere in the
constellation Pisces. 1t is a morning star,
rising almost exactly in the east between
l and - 4. m. The earth IS now moving in its
orbit almost directly toward the planet. and
our distance from it is decreasing rapidly.
New moon will fall this month on the It'll,
at S:45 am, Washington mean time; full
moon on the 23th, at am
The moon will be in "perigee"-the point
in Its orbit at which IT is the nearest to the
earth-on the goth. at 3 pm. The moons
position al pm. for every day of the month
on which she is above the horizon at that
hour is shown In the planisphere
On the Goth, at pm, Washington mean
time, the sun will enter Cancer and it will
be midsummer in the northern hemisphere
~
Her BIoomers Frightened OF the Bear
From the Morning Oreeonian.
AS Mrs. George Blanship of Olympia was
on the way to Mud Bay last Friday after
noon on her bicycle, she saw a black bear
beside the road SO busily occupied in eating
that he at first did not see her Under the
hope that bruin would be the means of her
discovering bee tree. Mrs. Blanship dis
mounted, and vert to where he was feast
Ing. and his bearship seeing her when she
had approached quite close to him. struck
into the timber. Instead of bees occupying
the bears attention. it was a large nest Of
ants He had pulled the nest open, and
was devouring the swarms Of the insects
that game out to attack the disturber of
their home.
He is Ovcr-TimorOus.