The evening times., 1896-03-02

On March the moon VIII be in her last
quarter, on the 18th new. on the LIST in her
first qua rter. and on the 2sth full. She will
he in ap"see on the l4th and in pcrigce on
the 18th.
The sun is rapidly approaching the equa-
tor, which IL VIII rcacn on the 18th, and
Herewith open the season Of spring. AT the
beginning OF March the sun will be de-
grees 10 minutes 26 seconds south Of tbs
equator. but on The last day of Inc month
degrees ~ minutes above IL, thus trav-
ersing in course OF March an re rather more
Than l degrees 80 minutes III apparent
deciEation.
1nc piauet Mercury will be in Capricoraus
during the first portion of the month. IN
Aquarius ia The middle. and AT the end on
the boundary me OF the latter and Pisces.
From little AFTER O'Clock iii the morning
until the appearance OF the sun the carry
riser VIII ste two niaEalIicent objects on
the eastern sky-tbe brIIIIant planets Venus
and Mars. the latter a little higher than the
former.
Both are in The constellation Ca pricornus
On the iirsI of Inc month tne!r Gist3ncc from
each other i.Iii he 10 degrees / 3 minutes,
on the 10Th 10 degree. AZ minutes. and
ON the last II degrees 1 D minutes. The dis
tancc Of the two pointers OF iie treat Bear
Is o degrees. and, therefore, suggests "A ocn-
vciIient measure OF estimating The above
mutual distance of Mars and Venus. and. in
fact, That al oIner ceicstiai ! object fronIeach
other.
AN EVENING STAR.
Jupiter IS III lancer ana shines Is an even
ing star. BoIh Saturn and Uranus are IN
Scorpio ut bat IL short distance from each
other, though there is a 1rtat difference De-
tween these two planets as 10 brightness,
the former being very brilliant. while The
latter is too FAINT 10 be easily rec ognized
with The naked eye. 1ney DOtn rise about
10 O'Clock in the evening. Neptune is in
Taurus, but It's enormous distance OF nearly
two Diiiion nIIics makes II ii here telescope
planet.
Most people Of moderately coed eyesieht
can Distinguish six stars III the Pleiadrs,
some whose power OF vision Is more acutc-
seven aud even more 4 fed glass OF Crdi-
nary size Will increase this number very
considerably, and powerful Instruments viii
extend IL heyoLd 400.
Tne largt->t star III this group is AlcyOne,
OF the third ma gnit Ude, Il $50 called Eta Tauri.
as the W hole cluster belongs to the constella-
ton Taurus.
The other six stars still visible to the
naked eye have also proper names, viz:
Maia, Electra. MerOpe. a tlas, Taygcta, and
Celoeno, the last CT which is the dlmmest.
There Is particular Interest attached to
Alcyone, as 1t il the star Il which the cele-
braued German astronomer Nader once
thought that II was the central sun, around
which our own sun was revolving with all
his splendid retinuc OF planets and their
satellites.
Attractive and speCious as this idea ap-
pear.d, n has aItOget her been cNpltd dcd. iCr
IT has been established as an Irrefutable
fact that 1t is not the Pleiades toward
which our sun Is sailing, bCt the const ella
tion Hercules.
Another distressing cluster is Praesepe
in Cancer, the separation of the stars OF
which can be effected by telescope OF
small size Cancer Is IL itself a very IN
significant constellation. as the only light
the presence OF the remarkable cluster
Pracsepc lends it an interest that, outside
OF IFS being III the zodiac, II wou.d not
THE NfnCApru nE Du ANETS