The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-02-07
SKIES OF FEBRUARY.
Astronomical Suggestions of Interest
To Amateurs.

cal show of the month, there was an
occultation of the Pleiades by the
moon. This unusual phenomenon took
place between 10 and II on Sunday
evening, January 80. which time the
moon passed over, or "occulted' the
principal stars Of this group. A good
opera glass would have been of great
assistance in observing, although a
good eye should have been able to see
the dark part of the moon as it passed
Dver the brightest Pleiad. Alcyone.
Jupiter will be the only planet con-
veniently seen this month. 1t will be
seen rising in the east about 10 o'clock.
1t shines with a reddish light, and APP
pears nearly as bright as Sirius the
dog star" At a. m. on the 18th an
interesting arrangement of it's four
outer satellites will occur. 1.-TWO will
will be behind the planet, one will be
directly in front of it, and the other
will be seen close to the planets disc.
These satellites or moons can be we'll
seen with a two-inch telescope. A good
opera glass will show them. Usually all
four are to be seen at once. They Will
be easily recognized by their proxi-
| mate to the planet and their arrange
ment in nearly straight line, writes
l.. w. Ripley in the Hartford Times.
Mercury attained it's greatest appar
ent distance west from the sun on jan
uary 49, being then about rs degrees
| from the sun. 1t can be seen for few
days in February between and in
the morning. 1t will be low down In
the east at about the point the sun
reaches an hour and a half after sun
rise.
The rule that planets do not twinkle
does not apply to Mercury.
| Venus, Mars and Saturn are in that
part of their orbits lying in the direc-
ton of the sun, and cannot therefore be
easily seen.
The array of constellation has
changed somewhat since last month,
the whole celestial sphere having APP
peared to move westward 80 degrees.
All the stars appear at a given time
each night to be about one degree west
of the position they occupied the night
previous. Thus in a year they pass
around the entire circle and return on
|
the old stand OF course this is only an
appearance and is caused by the mo-
ton of the earth in it's annual journey
around the sun.
THE GREAT NEBULA.
If you have first-class field glass; or
better telescope of not less than two
inches aperture, the very first object
with which you ought to become ac-
| quainted is the Great Nebula in Orion.
This magnificent object is massed
around what appears to the naked eye
as the middle star in the sword of
Orion.
That which appears to the unaided
eye as single star, and that rather
dim, is really wonderful aggrega-
ton of suns and luminous gas. If your
telescope is inverting, as all astronomf-
cal glasses are, you will see an irregu-
lar cloud of light gradually fading
away toward the left of the field of
view, while on the right it is bounded
by quite a sharp but irregular outline.
1t seems to have sort of nucleus in
four stars close together, which form
the Trapezium. A good three-inch
glass will separate these. Here we see
a system of suns in the various stagt I
of manufacture. Ages ago the process
began which will be completed in vast
ages to come.
Taurus, the Bull is now directly
south at o'clock The principal OBJ
iects in this constellation are the clus
tiers of the Pleides and Hyades. Nep
tune is now in Taurus, near it's eastern
limit
Next in the procession come Gemini,
the Twins. The two brightest stars
are Castor and Pollux. At point
where a part of the Twins dips into the
Milky Way is a magnificent star clus-
ter which is very dimly visible to the
naked eye. 1t is part below line join
ing Rollux and Aldebaran, and almost
midway between them. A photograph
of this cluster shows more than two
thousand stars.
Just to the left of Gemini is the con-
stellation Cancer. An interesting OBJ
ject here is the naked-eye cluster
"Paresepe," or Manager. The small
stars on either side are the ASSET, or
asses, which are supposed to be feed
ing from the managers The cluster is
easily seen as bright patch nearly as
large as the full moon. Lower down
| ana SUN 10 LIE lclL 10 Secu Lie oiChlS
!, shaped constellation of Leo Major.
The bright star in the end of the han
die is Regulus.
THE zODIACAL CONSTELLATION.
Thus far we have been looking at the
constellation on the ecliptic, the So
called "zodiacal constellation" We
must not neglect wholly the 'circum-
polar constellation" First in import
ance is the well known Ursa Major or
Great Bear. Mark Twain in his new
book says that the Great Bear re-
manned the Great Bear, and unrecog-
) able as such, for thousands of years,
, and everybody complained, but as
! soon as it became the property of the
United States, Congress changed it to
! the Big Dipper, and now everybody is
/ satisfied.
On the other side of the pole from the
Ursa Major is Cassiopeia, the brigh
stars of which form sort of fiattened
w. Twenty degrees south of the center
: of Cassiopeia Is the famous Nebula Wis
: ible to the naked eye. Our entire solar
/ system, if removed to the distance OF
/ this bright patch in the sky would APP
pear smaller that one of the stars in
1 Cassiopeia. This gives good idea OF
the immense scale of construction OF
! the visible universe, that is, the one tC
= which we belong. Who shall say how