Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-02

deed, the constellation is popularity known
as the Northern Cross. The northernrnost
Oh these stars is Alpha Cygni. known also
as Deneb, the Tail" 1t is much the
brightest of the five and is sometimes class
ed as a star of the first magnitude. The
remaining four are between the second and
mira magnitudes Deneb is in the Swans
tall. as Its name indicates. and il also
marks the head of the Cross The beak
Oh the Swan-foot of the Cross-is marked
by the star Beta, on the extreme right
Inc arms OF the Cross form the Swans
wings The Swan lies in the thick of the
Milky Way and is. for this reason excep-
tionally rich in stars. visible or invisible to
the naked eve -
Beta Cygni is a colored double star. wide
enough TO be separated easily with a small
teiescope. Its components are yellow and
ueep piue 1t is the most splendid object of
its KIND in the entire heavens
OF Particular Interest
"A dotted circle on the planlsphere marks
the position of a star which though of only
the NTH magnitude. has probably been
talked about more than any other star i'm
the heavens. unless ii is Sirius namely an
Cygni, famous as the first of the stars to
surrender the secret of its distance mr.
rather as the first of which this discovery
was announced. by Bessel some sixty
Ss 800 ago. Note the position of the star
win relation to the head ora -,
arm OF the Cross. A small triangle of STAR
VIII De found here which an onar. ,,Ia,S
n viii orlhg out very prettily. The star in
queS'iou is the uppermost of these three
stars Its color is deep orange
Inc nearest of the stars so far nc g.,
10" known, is Alpha Centauri a briIIian1
Us. rs, magnitude star in the southern hemis
p.iere, situated too far south to be seen in
me mean latitude of the United States Its
uistdhce from US is three and one-third
ught years. This star 81 Cygni comes
6otar,s; "a. d Instance, according to the latest
Gnvfaat
mlilion-million miles or in round n1,,,,
pers, fo.oW times that of the sun
a Instance traversed by light i'm about
seven years. 1t is double star go
sistihs OF TWO orange-colored compo-
hents OF about equal magnitude pretty
ouJect lor a small telescope. The stars
arstahce from us being known. the distance
apart or its two components can he calcu
lated. and the striking fact is broupbt on,
that. though to the naked eve and even
through a field glass the star appears sin
s,e, the Two suns OF which it consists are
oNer o'ooo million miles apart
The Planets.
Mercury has been an evening star since
June 81. After the middle of the month IL
may be looked for near the horizon. a little
north of west. twenty minutes or a half
hour after sunset
Venus has frightened during the MAST
month. and though she has not vet al
tanned to her full brilliancy, she is a splen-
oid OBJECT in the western sky during the
early evening hours. She is still above the
horizon at o clock
Mars is moving rapidly eastward He
mas just entered Taurus. and is nearing the
Pleiades. This planet is still a morning
star rising shortly before i am
Jupiter is still a magnificent evening star
the rival of Venus in brillancy. He sets at
about IL pm.
Saturn. in the Scorpion some five degrees
northward of Antares, is now south at o
O'Clock. Saturn is considerably brighter
than Antares; the planet resembles Arc
turus both in brilliancy and color-orange-
yellow. Ii is now fine object in the tele-
scope. the rings being open" nearly to
their widest. 1t is still retrograding-mov-
ing westward-sowly.
Uranus is trifie one degree south
and west of the star Beta Scorpii-the
uppermost of three third magnitude stars
seen at The right of Antares and Saturn.
IT can be seen easily with opera glass.
Like Saturn, it is retrograding.
Neptune, in Taurus, rises at about 3 am.
Today, July 2. the earth is in aphelion;
that Is, at its greatest distance from the
sun. We are now 3o00,UO0 miles farther
from the sun than we were on the list OF
January.