Evening star., 1897-01-02

in the right shoulder OF Orion, which upon
this theory has not yet, reached the condi-
ton OF sun, but Is only dense mass
OF red-hot meteortc stones. But such a
mass will become still imore compact and
still hotter. In time it will become wholly
gaseous, and in the course of this pro-
cess, as Its temperature rises its color will
change. 1t will become a yellow star, and
| finally blue-white star, such as Ri9el
and Sirius. Then 1t will begin slowly to
cool of. 1t will again become a yellow
star. such as Capela and our own SUM-
Then, as 1t cools still farther It will he
come second time a red star its spectrum
indicating strongly the presence of the
carbon compounds in its atmosphere Fin
ally 1t Will cease to emit light. It will be-
come extinct as luminary. Such, in
brief. Is the history Of a world, upon the
meteoric theory
The Planets.
Mercury will be visible az an evening
two weeks of the month. Near the close
of the me nth 1t will make its appearance
as morning star in the southeast
Venus now shines with her well-known
brilliancy in the southwest, and is above
the horizon for nearly three hours after
the sun has set. She is near her great
est eastern elongation. and presents in a
telescope the phase Of the moon at about
the first quarter.
Mars, in the constellation Taurus. crosses
the meridian nearly overhead at about 10
PM The planet was in opposition" to the
sun on the 10th Of last month, but our
nearest approach to it was made six days
earlier, when our distance from 1t was. in
round numbers, 52,0O0,OOO miles. This is
more than 100000 miles greater than
our least di stance from 1t in 1894
Al observations thus far reported are
confirmatory of those made two years ago
The same seasonal changes, the same sue
cessive appearance and mysterious dou-
olng OF the canal have been wit
messed hes xaads..;ua this year as then That Mars
little water, and that the greenish color Of
those dark areas formerly supposed to he
seas, Is due, in part at least, to its yegeta-
,a' non' while its orange areas are desert reg
ions. except where traversed by canals or
dotted with "oases," seems now to be fairly
well established. -
At the last opposition the planets sou+b
invisible. At the present time the north
pole ts tilted slightly toward US. and the
north polar cap, though not very large ts
distinctly visible. 1t is now about the be-
phere of Mars and the beginning Of Octo-
Ter in its southern.
Jupiter, in Leo, now rises about 10 n m
Already he is In good position for scan
ming with telescope, and is a rival or
venus as an evening star.
saturn and Uranus. in Scorpio, rise at
about abe am. Neptune is in Taurus, some
ten degrees east of Mars, but is, of course
far beyond the reach Of the naked eve.
Minima of Algol convenient for Observing
VIII occur on the 18th. at 10 pm, and on
the 10Th at pm. Mira will probab bly have
PASSED its maximum before the first Of the
month. The stars position is shown on the
planisphere. 'e
A recent dispatch from the Lick observa-
tory announces that Professor Schaeheria
mas discovered a companion of Procyon
The discovery Is of especial interest. since
bessel nearly forty years ago explained a
certain variability In this stars proper mo-
tion on the suppositionf that 1t had an in
visible satellite of q considerable mass re-
Volving round 1t, asfiPeters had already ex
planned like irregularity in the movement
OF Sirius. The companion of Sirius was
dlscoyered nearly ten Years later-in 1862
Dy Alvan Clark. while testing a new fele-
scope. It remains to be5determined wheth-
er the star seen by fSchaeberle is the body
discovered mathematically by Bessel. # is
OF the thirteenth magnitude, and is. there
1ore, about equal in brightness to the fifth
satellite of Jupiter.i discovered by Barnard
in 1892. -,