The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-05

not without cause, one would say,
with regard to these accusations, that
the moon is so near us; If it were as far
off as Saturn 1t would not be able to
answer to all of them.
The Monster Planet Saturn.
Saturn opens the ball by being at the
quarter point of his course on the I'd.
He is moving on toward opposition,
when he will be most favorably located
for observation and will remain in
sight from the time of his rising until
the breaking day blots him from the
sky more than 90O,000,O00 miles from us,
an immense globe, not only the size of
the earth, but as large as 734 earths
put together. 1t revolves on its axis
with such rapidity that in spite of it's
size it accomplishes its diurnal rotary
movement in about ten hours. 1t has q
system of wonderful rings surrounding
it which do not remain immovable, but
are carried along with the circular
movement round the planet that in ra-
pidity exceeds that of the planet itself.
The domain of the Saturnine world is
not confined to this, for beyond the
rings there are eight moons revolving,
whose radii increase the system to a.
diameter of 4,5OOO0O miles.
Jupiter and the Earth.
Jupiter progresses majestically to-
ward the point at which he will be in
opposition, and where he will arrive on
the 25th. AT this time he will present a
glorious object in the eastern sky, COM
ing into view about as the sun has set,
and shining with q brilliancy and pow
er exceeding that which he succeeds in
attaining at any other time of the year.
He becomes also at that time an even
ing star, and will remain in that cate
CORY until October.
The inhabitants of Jupiter never the
the earth during the night, although it
is precisely in the middle of clear
nights that we are best able to observe
this magnificent planet.
The Frontier Planet Neptune
Neptune also reaches the position of
quadrature, and arrives there on the
10th. On the LIST he was in conjunction
with the growing moon, and will sbe
again on the 2Sth Neither of these
exactness to locate the position of the
planet. The world which here marks
the frontier of the system is situated
at such distance from the sun that
the light and heat which it receives
from it are 1900 times less than that by
which the earth is enriched, so that no
great difference can be noted between
the day and night of this distant plan
ct, to which the solar disc is nearly re-
duced to the smallness of the stars.
Uranus and Mercury.
Uranus also comes under the heading
of the morning stars. This planet is at
| present in 16 hours minutes right es-
| cension, and 20 degrees AZ minutes
south declination which puts him in the
| group Of the Scorpion, but helps us
| very little in finding him without a
| telescope. Neither does the fact of his
| being in CONJUNCTION with the moon on
| the 18th aid in this particular, for the
| two bodies are not very close together
| at the time.
Mercury joins the evening stars on
the 10Th, at which time he is in superior
conjunction with the sun, and begins
| swinging to the eastward.
Mars and Venus.
Mars and the fading crescent come
at the closest point of meeting on the
10Th, but the planet is yet very conspic-
uous, and there will be too much clear
sky between the two bodies to admit of
the scene being particularly attractive.
Mars is at this time hardly one-third
the size that he attains before the year
closes.
Venus is now once again an evening
star, but for the present we are not al
lowed to delight our eyes with her love-
illness. So great, however, will the
treat be that it behooves us all to keep
looking in the western sky to see who
will be the first to discover the queen
of the planets shortly after the sun has
set. The globe presents the greatest re-
semblance to our own and it has near
ly the same astronomical elements
size, volume, weight and density-only
| it is much nearer to the sun than
we are.
|