Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1897-03-11
Astronomy For March,
By August Cross, of Slipperyrock.

That the sun should retain his heat
without apparent diminution for count
less ages. must excite the wonder and
admiration of all thinking people
When however, the enormous size of
the sun is considered, it does not seem
incredible that he should retain his heat
practically unimpaired for millions of
wears. His diameter is no less than
864. 600 miles and if his center conceded
with the centre of the earth, his cir
cumference would be nearly 200 900
miles beyond the orbit of the moon.
At one of the Pittsburg furnancs some
time ago, huge anvil was moulded
which required more than a month to
cool The anvil contained Ga cubic
yards, but the solidity of the sun is not
less than 1850 septillious Of cubic yards,
so that if the sun cooled off no faster IN
proportion to size than the anvil did he
would require more than p septilllous
of wears to become entirely cold. This
is a very inadequate comparison be
cause in reality the sun is thousands OF
times hotter than any conceivable artl-
fetal temperature. 1t will serve how
ever to demonstrate the improbability
of the suns becoming perceptlbly re-
duced in temperature as long as the
earth remains the habitation of man.
Venus is in perihelion or nearest the
sun and is distant &c, 61S, 900 miles from
that orb. On the 21st she will be at
her greatest brilliancy and is even now
beyond comparison the most Brilliant
gem among all the stellar consultations.
When at her brightest she will be but
Al, 962, 900 miles from the earth; three
tenths of her apparent disk will be en-
lightened, and her angular diameter as
seen from the earth will be 81 minutes
6 seconds. Her actual diameter is 1858
miles. Venus is in the constellation
aries this month, and on the evening of
the 21st sets at 9:49 local time, the
point of setting being 27t degrees north
of wast
Mars is rapidly becoming an ineOn-
spicuous object IN the heavens, and
after this month will not be Of special
interest to amateur observers. He
reaches his greatest northern declina-
ton % degrees A minutes on the 18th.
He is in the zone of the milky way and
il in the constellation Taurus, but
reaches the boundary of that conteslla
tion and enters Gemini about the mid
die of the month. The situation of
Mars with respect to the stars Betel
a nearly perfect equilateral triangle of
about twenty degrees to a side. These
three objects are of about equal bril-
liancy and of similar appearance, each
one of them being characterized by
distinctly ruddy hue. The distance of
Mars from the earth on the 10th of
March at : p NJ. is 11S. $40, 900 miles,
which il about 26 millions of miles
further away than he was month ago.
Jupiter, the giant of the planetary
system, is now moving retrograde or
towards the west He is only five de
grees from the star Regulus. The ap-
pellation giant planet is appropriate
" applied to Jupiter as he has greater
mass than all the other planets put to-
gether. His equatorial diameter is
somewhat more than so, 00G milGg, but
his polar diameter, on account OF
his rapid rotation is but 81, 0O0 miles.
He completes revolution around the
sun in II years, and as there are II
signs in the zodiac, it follows that he
changes signs-or houses as the
ancient astrologers called them-on an
average once year This year he is
in Leo; in 1899 he will be in Virgo; in
1899 in Libra; 1900 in Scorpio, aud so
on The distance of Jupiter from the
earth at Greenwich midnight of March
20, and 21st will be upwards of AIS mil
lions of miles.
Saturn is yet morning star, and il
consequently a stranger to most OBJ
servers. He rises at midnight on the
10Th, rises at II 81 He is in the con-
stellation Scorpio, and his distance
from the earth at Greenwich noon on
the 4th of March is S97, so, 600 miles
His relative motion is toward the earth
ut the rate of one and half millions of
miles day. saturn has eight moons
the names of which in the order of dis
tance are, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys,
Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion and
Japetus.
1t is seldom indeed that so many
brilliant celestial objects are stimuli
taneously visible as may now be seen
on any clear evening. Besides the
planets Venus, Mars and Jupiter,
seven stars of the first magnitude are
visible at 8 p. NJ, namely Sirius,
Procyon. Arcturus, Capella, Aide
baran, Betelgeuse and Rigel. The
principal second magnitude stars above
the horizon at that hour are Regulus,
Castor and Pollux.