The herald., 1898-09-18
SKY OF BRILLIANT CLUSTERS
Stars That Can Be Seen This Month
Equal Days and Nights

This September sky will be alive with c!us-
tering consultations shining with renewed
, luster in the crisp and pure autumnal at
! mosphere. Among them may be noted the
great square of Pesagus. rising in the east,
| and low down in the northeast is the lovely
cluster of the Pleiades The three stars,
Arcturus, Vega and Capela. known as the
northern br.lliants, are especially worthy
of observation, for they are al! visible, and
opinions differ TO which is the brightest
of the trio. AT the close of the first third
Of the month Arcturus is the brilliant red
star near the northwest horizon: VEGA the
superb star high in the north not far west
OF the mer.d dian, and Capella will he found n
the northeast. fairly outshinng her rivals,
according to the champions of the other
two. But planets and stars alike Will lose
their luster when toward the close of the
month the full face of the harvest moon
shines in eastern horiz Il just about as sun
sets glow is disappearing and rises slowly
toward the zenith. quite putting out the
| smaller stars, flooding the sleeping earth
with silvery light, casting weird shadows
over the landscape. and painting wherever
her beams res, pictures of neffable lowell
ness that pencil can never reproduce.
One of the most interesting features Of
the month lies in the fact that the sun
reaches the equaor and starts off on his six
months journey in the south Geclnatlon.
This autumnal equinox. as it is called. gives
us equal days and nights the world over. 1t
has been found that there IS slow retro
grade motion of the point of the suns cross
| ing the equator, from east 10 west or con-
trary to the order If the zodacal signs. as if
| .ia mint livap n he
annual return. To this phenomenon has
! been given the name of the procession of
the equinoxes." This motion is at the ap-
| proximate rate of a degree IN seventy-one
| aud soven-tenths years. the equator moving
on the eclptic while the ecliptic retains its
position nearly unchanged among the stars.
! This popularity is said TO he caused by
the combined action ofsun and moon on the
mass of matter accumulated about the
earth's equator, In consequence of tbs
motion the longitudes Of the heavenly
bodies are increasing. while. on comparing
their latitudes as found by the ancient as
tronomers with those of today, only little
change indeed is found. The credit for this
important discovery is due to Hipparchus,
whose researches were made more than n
hundred years before the Christian era. One
other effect of this procession is of interest
/ : % US. and that s its bearings on the position
Of the signs Of the zodiac. whose limits do
not row agree with the cons tellations which
| bear the same names. For example, the
/ sign of Aries is now in the constellation of
Pisces and s. on, each sign having backed"
go TO speak into the constellation west of IT,.
Mercury opens the monthly events by be-
ing in inferior conjunction with the sun on
| the 5th. after which II becomes a morning
star and swings away to the westward on its
| journey about the sun. Just before the old
crescent fades from view il and the planet
are in conjunction, but both are too near the
sun to admit of our seeing them On the
21st the point Of greatest western elongation
is reached and Mercury a gain turns toward
the sun.
A few hours after Mercury arrives at his