The evening times., 1896-04-02

During the mouth of April the moon un-
| Icrgoes the folio wing phases: Last quarte.
| Oh the 4th, new on the 18th, first quarter on
The Goth and full on the eth. On the 10th
she will be in apogee and on the 25th in
| perigee. The sun will be 4 degrees, 30
minutes, 5S seconds ON the 1st and 10
degrees, Is minutes, 52 seconds on the
last of the month north of the equator,
thus passing during the month over an arc
| of 10 degrees, 2T minutes, "a seconds in
declnation.
The position of the planets during April
are as follows. Mercury, at the beginning
Of the month, Will be on the boundary line
r Of Aquarius and Pisces aud at the end in
Aries. The period OF the revolution Of
Mercury about the sun is nearly SS day,
so that In an avcra ge il moves tbrou gh four
considerations of the Zoilac in Il m,nth. Its
synodical period, which is the time of one
| revolt ton relatively to the earth, is 11G
days, so that ii will aItcrnateI be morning
and evening star after periods comprising
that number OF days. though it is but sell
dom that one eau distinguish it in the su
perior refuIgcnce of he solarI sht tiTradiating
he sky a short time he fore sunrise aud a f:2r
sunset. The greatest elongation Of Mcr-
curyis 2S degrees, 20 minutes. from. which
follows that this planet is in too close prox-
| unity TO the sun to be seen otherwise than
n the morning or evening twilight.
MORNING STAR.
Venus, which during the month Will
.inger in Pisces, is still morning star and
VIII figure as such until about the 9TH of
July. 1t Will rise little before O'Clock
in the morning. so that with the lenGthening
,
during the first portion OF the month viii be
seen in Capricornus and in the middle and
end In Aquarius. II rises about 800 in
the morning, and, like Venus, Will act as
morning star. Jupiter being in Cancer is the
mos, brilliant object in the heavens during
the evening hours. 1t will set little be-
fore O'Clock in the morning.
Saturn Is III Libra, rises little after
o'clock, and in the later hours of the even
ing until the appearance of the morning
twilight will shine withits usuallustcr. t.
distant planet Uranus is III Scorpio. and tie
most distant of all. Neptune. i'll Taurus. The
distance between Venus and Mars, which
for some time was comparatively small
IS widening, the swifter Traveller. Venus,
leaving the tardicr Mars more and more be-
hind. A close conjunction between the
brilliant planets, such as Venus. Jupiter,
Mars and Saturn, is a sight that cannot but
excite wonder and admiration, but, Unfor-
;unately, it is extremely rare.
OTHER SINNERS.
Looking about 8 or 10 O'Clock in the
evenings of April toward the southern
portion OF the sky we see that Aries and
Andronleda are on the point OF setting.
Taurus, with The Pleiades and Hyades,
IS low down in the southwest and in the
after part of the month on the point Of
setting. Orion, which during the nights
Of the winter months has delighted the
eye of the gazer, is, like Sirius, not far
rom the setting point, while the Great
Bear and the Lion have reached the
meridian.
The king OF fixed stars nd OF the planets,
Sirius and Jupiter, will at once catch the
eye that is turned toward the south. as
,hey are not at a considerable distance
from each other.
The principal star OF Leo, Regulus, is of
the first ma gnitude and lies almost exactly
N the ecliptic-that is, that great circle In
he circumference OF which the sun per-
'orms its apparent annual motion and
which marks the zodiac. within whose
limits the moon and the planets are moving
The ecliptic intersects the equator in
two points, the vernal and autumnal caui-
noxes. and is inclined to it at the slightly
varying angie OF % degrees 81 minutes and
8 9seconds Gts mean v;Iue for the year 500,
Now, as the equator has its two polcs-the
north and south poles of the celest ial sphere,
the ecliptic has its two poles too. where
distance from the north and south poles
of the heavens is. of course, equal TO the
obliquity OF the ecliptic. The northern
one is right in the middle of the large cir
cumpolar constellation Draco, which winds
itself betwccn the two Bea rs, and terminates
in a very conspicuous Irregular quadrilat-
erai, not far from thc bright star Vega.
OF THE THIRD MAGNITUDE.
If we draw Il line in a nOrihcsaterly di
rec,ion from this quadriateral, we notice
at equal distances from this line within
the constellation Draco two stars OF the
third magnitude. Delta and Zeta Draconis
the middle of which marks the northern
pole of the ecliptic. A little to the northeast
of il there is small right triangle. which,
IN a starlit and moonlcss night, is quite
noticeable.
magnificent star has risen in the north
east, which, on account OF its bnlliancy,
:snOt infrequently taken for Il planet by the
uniniiated. This is Arcturus, in the con
stcliation BoOtes, the brightest fixed star
N the northern hemisphere. Virgo is also
up. but as this fine constellation is seen at
greater advantage next month, we reserve
a description of it for our next article.
s-