The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-09-02
THE SEPTEMBER SKIES

l LIiI oIAI ESM pEAIs ShlES.
 Astronomical Features of This Month
 of the Harvest Moon-Positions of the | Planets-The Equinox.
 On September 10 the moon will be
 full. This is twelve days before the equinox, which occurs this year on the | 22d, and as it is nearer the equinox
 than the following full moon it is i clearly entitled to receive the honor l of being called the harvest moon. The peculiarity of the full moon which | comes nearest the autumnal equinox is that it rises at nearly the same time for several nights in succession. full moon always rises about the time the sun sets, but on the evening following the day on which the moon , reaches it's full stage it rises after sun set at periods ranging from few min
 utes to more than an hour, depending on season and latitude The intervals
 are shorter with September moons than
 with those of other months. The differ
 ence of time between successive risings
 of the moon after sunset, comparing
 September with March, the month when
 the vernal equinox occurs, particularly
 disappears around the equator and in-
 creases with the distance from that
 time.
 Around the time of the autumnal
 equinox the angle between the plane of
 the horizon and that of the ecliptic, or of the path which the earth traverses
 on it's yearly journey around the sun, is smaller than it is at other times dur
 ing the year. This is why the moon of the period seems to rise about the same time for several successive nights. In England most of the crops are gathered in September, and the full moon of that time, which comes up for several evenings just after sun- set, leaving only brief interval of darkness, was once deemed to be a spe- cial provision of providence to enable the farmers to continue their work on- ward into the night without interrup- tion, and thus it popularly became known as the harvest moon,
 In September the moon quarters on the Sd, is full on the 10th, reaches last | quarter on the 18th, and new moon comes in on the 26th.
 Jupiter is in conjunction with the sun | on the 18th, and when it reappears if | will De heralding in the day in the earlv | sky
 Venus IS gradually approaching the sun as Jupiter draws away from that | and in October these two mighty rivals will meet in the morning sky and there will be a fine chance to | them. Just at present Venus Is the queen to whom all the early twinklers do homage.
 saturn is in conjunction with the moon twice during the month. once on the z0th and again or ths last day of the month.
 Uranus comes under the same head ng With saturn and also has twice the lonor of being in conjunction with the noon.
 Mercury IS also in conjunction this F month. but the event happens so much nore frequently with this planet than Vlth US fellows that 1t has hardly the , anne interest for the observer.
 Neptune on the l4th is in quadrature | 'lth the sun on his way to the point of pposftion, and four days later it is lu- ar conJunction The brightest star nat IS nearest Neptune is Aldebaran, , l the eye of the bull.
 Mars, for warlike planet, does not , h1ne very conspicuously during sep- amber.
 Twice each year-around March 21 nd September 22-ths sun is said to 1 cross the equinoctial'' or "cross the ne." When the sun crosses the line it
 Tn the zenith of all places on the S luator at noon. Consequently its rays a each from one pole to the other. On a about the dates mentioned each year F 1e sun is above the horizon of every j olht of the earth, and approximately 'r the same length of time that it is eloW the horizon, so that at that time, aklng no allowance for refraction. S le days and nights are about equal in e ration. On September g the six o ionths day at the north pole will end c lo the six months night begin, while fl the south pole these conditions will s ? reversed. f,