The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1897-06-30

which it has been lingering for several
months. 1t will shine as an evening star
until about 8: 80
AS long as IL is above the horizon IL is
certainly the most striking object il the
evening skies, and being near the western
horizon IL much resembles the planet Venus,
with which 1t may well be confounded by
persons who are not aware of the fact that
Venus is at present q morning star and
VIII act In that capacity until the end OF
the year. Saturn is in Scorpio, and suf-
ficently prominent to be recognized in
its capacity of d planet, and bright one
too, though inferior to Jupiter. After the
setting OF the latter Saturn will outshiuc
all other objects in the heavens.
In the year l772 a German by the name
of Pode established certain series of
numbers, the law of whose successive
terms is very simple and easily remembered
Of these successive numbers he maintained
that they express in a simple manner the
relative distances Of the planets from the
sun. When few years later Uranus was
discovered and its distance measured it
was found that the latter quite well agreed
with Bode's law, as 1t is called. However,
In this series there is a gap between the
terms relating TO the distances of Mars and
Jupiter This gave rise TO a long enter
tanned suspicion that there must be an
undiscovered planet between the last two
planets mentioned. This suspicion served
as an Incentive TO the discovery Of a very
small planet on January l, 1901, and i'm
as.f GO, Ia n
bodies, the first four of which are, in
order OF their discovery, called Ceres,
pallas, Juno and Vesta.
Since that time great many more Of
these S0-callcd asteroids have been discov-
cred, SO that at present their number
amounts to nearly 300. An merican pro-
lessor at Chntoa, \. Y, who quite recently
died. discovered alone fifty-two OF them.
All these asteroids are exceedingly small
the largest and brightest, Vesta, having
d diameter OF only 3f9 miles, while that
of the smallest so far discoyeredls no more
tnan ten miles. Although we know but
Ii.tie of sse.r ,r.sFtvfduai NJ asses IL is Ger
tain that their aggregate mass, even
those included that have not We. been seen
cannot exceed the fourth part of the mass
OF our earth. A rifle ball fired Off on the
surface OF Ycsta, the largest Of these Ill
miuutive planets. would not return Il,
whencclt came, aud good baseball play
ar could throw his ball on the smaller ones
with sufficient force to insnfT it's perma-
nent separation from the body whence IL
was thrown, and thus convert il into a
body that on its own account would ct on
late around the sun.
The principal conStcllati o-s that in course
OF the month OF July Will be on and near
the meridian are Sco7,'o. Ophiuchus and
Hercules. ScOrpiois one al fbe zodiacalcon-
stellations and the mot brilliant of nil
twelve OF them. Its conf euratiun r.sem-
bles much boys kite with a lCng tail.
It's principal star is Alpha or Antares, a
first magnitude star OF fiery-red col)r.
and in this respect resembles Mars In
fact' the word Antares means the rival
OF Mars Ares being the Greek name for
Mars. 1t is fine double star, with a
green companion, which, however, cannot
be seen with a small telescope.
The second brightest star is On the TOD
OF the kite" and not far fIon IL we ree
the planet Saturn, whose proximity en-
hances the intrinsic beauty OF the CON
steilat;on. Somewhat northwest of SCOrpio
we see two fairly bright stars constituting
the principal members of tie constellation
Libra, and northwest of Scorpio a nj Libra a
long curve of stars convex toward the last
named constellation, marking the extensive
constellation Of Serpensorth the Serpent. The
head OF the reptile is easily recognized bv
three stars forming "a small iSosceles tri-
angle The serpent is held by Ophiuchus,
sometimes called by its Latin name Sepep-
-arius, or the "serpent-holder," the Greek
Word meaning the same thing. The head
IF theiatteri is marked by anothe somew
larger isoSceles triangle, north of tho
middle OF the Serpent. The northern
most vortex OF this triangle is Alpha Ophui- |
2hi, or Ras Alhague. The constellation
'ommemorated Aesculapius, the god of
medicine.
North or Ophiuchus lies the large and |
ire constellation Hercules, whose most |
salient features consist of unadriIaferaI.
ana south of IL a soEaew hat larger triangle
'f stars. The SouthernmoSt vertex of this |
triangle is the star Alpha, or Ras AIgetbi. |
The constellation Hercules has n special |
interest for US. as il has conclnsively been |
proved that the sun, with all it's splendid !
etinue or planets and satellites, is sailing
nward point In that constellation. the |
light ascension OF which is nearly sh. AMI
ieclination 81 degrees, and which is
allied the APEX OF the SUMS way" The
'orthern Gross and Lyre, with the beauti-
ul star Vega, are high up in the eastern
ky, while toward the southwest the noble
tar Arcturus rivals with Saturn in SPLEEN
or. The heavens present altogether a
inc appearance, well worthy of contem-
lation In the warm summer nights of
uly.