The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-08
NEw HAVEN MORNING JOURNAL COURIER FRIDAY APRIL 1898
THE SKIES IN APRIL.
Observations of the Aurora and Sun
 Spots.

Spots.
 Both Venus and Mercury grace the early evening sky in April It is many months since a chance has been af- forded to see the former after sunset, but the latter was visible during the closing days of December. On the oth- CT hand Venus is just entering on ca reer as evening star, which will last until November. In fact, the planet will steadily increase in brightness un- til the 26th of October, when no star or planet in all the heavens can com | pare with her in brilliancy. Mercury I makes one of the flying visits to the | region of visibility for which that sky | planet is noted. It is at its greater distance from eastern elongation on l the 10th of this month, and then rap I idly returns to the vicinity of the sun, | with which body it comes into con- | junction on the morning of the first of | May. Mercury then should be visible 1 for three or four days on each side of the 10th and may be found low down in the west as soon as the twilight be- | gins to fade. This should be one of | the most favorable times in the year to l see Mercury because of it's northern l declination. At the same time-on the evening of the 10th-Venus is nearer the sun and further south, but possi- | b1Iy bIobtar, tbap
 less. There are no bright stars in that l vicinity, so that the first object found | is likely to be one of two planets. In case one is in doubt which planet it is | that is visible observations on few successive evenings will settle the l point, for as already intimated, Venus l will steadily increase both it's distance l from the sun and it's brightness, while | Mercury will retreat after the 10th, and soon decrease in brightness. Mer- curry and Venus are in conjunction at noon on the 18th; Mercury is in con- Junction with the moon on the evening of the 21st, and Venus meets the same body on the following morning.
 Jupiter is visible almost the entire night, setting at the end of the month about three o'clock in the morning. It is still in the constellation Virgo, al- ready high in the east when the stars appear first in the evening. It is easily the most conspicuous object in the sky. It is in conjunction with the moon on the evening of the 5th. The fourth sa- tellite is farthest east of the planet on the evenings of the 9th, tn and Sth and the 23d and 24th. It is farthest west of the planet on the evenings of the 14th, 18th and 18th. The third sa- tellite is farthest east on the 9th, 18th, 18th and 26th, and farthest west on the 1st, Sth, 18th, 22d and 30th. These data are for those who wish to examine the Jovian system with a field-gass.
 Another planet which will soon claim attention is Saturn. It Is now in the constellation Scorpio, near the bright red star Antares. Saturn does not rise until near midnight in the first part of the month, but may be seen soon after ten o'clock before May 1. The rings are now open to their greatest width.
 Mira, the famous variable, some weeks ago passed out of the range of observation in the light of the sun. The maximum was reached this year about December 1. when the third magnitude was attained. Algol how ever, may still be observed in the northwest. An observable minimum is predicted for seven o'clock on the 18th
 of April.
 Professor E. c. Pickering of the liar yard observatory, reports the success ful photographing of the spectrum of the aurora visible March 15 through out the New England states, as well as on Long Island. Two bright lines were
 discovered, but full details of the ob-
 servation will not be available until published in the annals of the observa-
 tory later. In this connection it is in
 teresting to note that an observation
 of the sun the same day had shown a number of large sunspots, thus bring
 ing up again the question of the con-
 nection of sun spots and auroras. In
 this case the aurora was accompanied
 by violent magnetic storm, the tele- graph lines over part of the country in
 which the display was visible being se- riously affected. Certainly the bal ance of evidence now available goes to show that there is some definite rela- tion between spots on the sun and , magnetic disturbances on the earth. , This relation may not be in the na-
 ture of direct cause and effect, but may
 be none the less real. It has been sug-
 gested that phenomena are due to
 some third and outside force acting on
 both sun and earth, but in different ways. The nature of this force no one , has professed to explain. As long ago !, as 1850 Lamont, of Munich found that , the average daily variations of the magnetic needle have a period very closely agreeing with the eleven-year ) interval from one sun spot maximum to the succeeding maximum. This agreement has been verified by all the
 observations since that time and on
 this fact is based the supposed relation.
 Tn addition there are many cases of a
 direct correspondence between solar