The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-05
THE SKIES IN JULY.
Solar Eclipse on the 20th-POSition of
the PIanets-The Asteroids,
Baltimore Sun.

Baltimore Sun.
During the month of July the moon will
pc IN her 1lrSt quarter on the 9TH. full on the
I9th, IN her last quarter on the 21st, new on
the 18th, in the perigee on the 18th at noon
ana IN apogee on the 23d at 10 a. M The
sun Will be tWenty-three degrees five min
uteS and nineteen seconds north of the
equator at the beginning of the month and
pass during 1t through an arc of five de-
SreeS. ana eleven minutes of deClnation
showing an acceleration Of motion com
pared with last month.
ON the 18th of the month one of those
Phenomena Will take place that from time
lmmemorla! have never failed TO engage
the attention of and elicit the Won
der of mankind-a solar ecIipse Even those
that are quite familiar with the causes that
produce 1t, and may even be capable of un-
outstanding the intrinsic calculations neces-
Sary for its prediction, cannot suppress a
1eelng OF awe on beholding this most inter-
estlng of all the phenomena of nature The
eclipse Will be an annular one, visible on
TINS continent as partial one In our lat
1tude 1t Will begin at half-past 8 O'Clock in
the morning and end twelve minutes past
IL o'clock
the beginning Of the month, in Gemini in
the middle and on the boundary line Of Cam
Ger and Leo at the end. Venus will be in
IauruS during the entire month"; and shine
as morning star. 1t will rise soon after
o clock in the morning, and be the last
of the celestial objects whose light is swal-
lowed up by the superior refulgence and
the alI-abSOrbing illumination of the king
of day. Mars Will be at the extreme boun-
uafy line OF Leo, ana not be visible either
as morning or evening star. Jupiter is
still in Leo, though receding more and
more from the bright star Regulus, near
which it has been lingering for several
months. 1t will shine as an evening star
until about half-past 8. AS long as it is
above the horizon 1T is certainly the most
striking object in the evening skies, and
being near the western horizon, it much re-
sembleS the planet Venus, with which it
may be COMPOUNDED by persons who are not
aware OF the fact that Venus is at present
morning star and will act in that ca
pacity until the end of the year. Saturn is
in Scorpio and sufficiently prominent to be
recognized in its capacity Of a planet, and
a bright one, too, though inferior TO Jupi-
ter. After the setting of the lattef Saturn
will outshine all other objects in the
heavens.
In the year 1772 a German by the name of
Bode established a certain series of num-
bers the law of whose successive terms is
very simple and easily remembered. OF
these successive numbers he maintained
that they express in d simple manner the
relative distances of the planets from the
sun. When a few years later Uranus was
discovered and its distance measured 1t was
found that the latter quite we'll agreed with
BODIES law, as it is called. However, in
this series there is a gap between the terms
relating to the distance of Mars and Jupi-
ter. This gave rise to long entertained
suspicion that there must be an undiscov-
cred planet between the last two planets
mentioned. The suspicion served as an in
centive to the discovery of very small
planet on Jan. l, 1901, and in quick sue
cessiOn of similar small planetary bodies,
the first four of which are, in order of their
discovery, called Ceres, Pallas, Juno and
Vesta.
Since that time a great many more of
these so-called asteroids have been diseoV-
cred, so that at present their number
amounts to nearly three hundred. An
American professor at Clinton, N. Y, who
quite recently died. discovered alone fifty
two of them All these asteroids are eX-
ceedingly small, the largest and brightest,
Vesta, having a diameter of only 3l9 miles,
while that Of the smallest so far discovered
is no more than ten miles: Although we
know but little of their individual masses,
it is certain that their aggregate mass, even
those included that have not yet been seen,
cannot exceed the fourth part ct the mass
of our earth. a rifle ball fired off on the
surface of Nesta, the largest of these di-
minutiVe planets, would not return to
whence it came, and a good baseball player
could throw his bail on the smaller ones
with sufficient force to insure its perma-
nent separation from the BODY whence 1t
was thrown and thus convert il into body
that on it's own account would circulate
around the sun.
The principal consultations that in course
of the month of July will be on and near
the meridian are Scorpio, OpEiuchus and
Hercules Scorpio is one of the zodiacal
consultations and the most brilliant Of all
twelve Of them. It's ConhguratiOn resembles
much a boys kite with long tail. Its
principal star is Alpha or Antares, first
magnitude star of nery-red color, In
this respect resembling the planet Mars
In fact. the word Antares means The rival
of Mars" Ares being the Greek name Tor
Mars. 1t is a fine double star with a green
companion, which, however, cannot be seen
with q small telescope. The second bright
est star is on the top of the kite" and not
far from it we see the planet Saturn, whose
proximity enhances the intrinsic beauty of
the constellation. Somewhat northwest of
Scorpio we see two fairly bright stars con-
shutting the principal members OF the con-
stellation Libra, and northwest OF Scorplo
and Libra a long curve OF stars convex
toward the ast-named constellation marks
the extensive constellation of Serpens of
the Serpent. The head of the reptile is
easily recognized by three stars forming
small isosceles triangle. The serpent is
Latin name. Sepentarius or the Serpent
holder" the Greek word meaning the same
thing The head of the latter Is marked by
another somewhat larger isOsceles triangle,
north of the middle of the serpent. The
northernmOst VerteX of his triangle is
stellation commemorated Aesculapius the
god of medicine. North of Ophiuchus lies
the large and fine constellation Hercules,
whose most salient features consist of a
quadriateral. and south Of it a somewhat
larger triangle of stars The s0uthernmoSt
Ras Algethi. The constellation Hercules
has a special interest for us as il has con-
clUsiVely been proved that the sun with all
its splendid retinue OF planets and satellites,
is sailing toward point in that constella-
ton, the right ascension of which is nearly
1Sh. and declination 81 degrees, and which is
called the APEX of the suns way" The
Northern Cross and Tyre, with the beapt-
full star Vega, are high up in the eastern
sky, while toward the southwest the noble
star Arcturus rivals with Saturn I'm SPLEEN
dor. The heavens present altogether fine
appearance well worthy of contemplation in
the warm summer nights Of July.