The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-07
THE YEAR WITH THE HEAVENS.
THE FIRST OF SIN ECLIPsEs WILL
TAKE PLACE TONIGHT.

Ihe Eclipse to Begin at CAT
O'CIOck-TwO other EcIipses of the
Moon and Three of the sun to Take
Place This Year-Aspects of the
Planets During January-A
Glimpse Into the Mysteries OF
Other Worlds.
| While nothing of very unusual RAJ
ture is predicted for those interested in
matters astronomical during the year 1898,
still there are several minor phenomena
that may possess some interest for the
public
| The first of these will be an eclipse Of
the moon tonight, beginning about dark
and lasting about one hour and thirty-six
minutes. The time of its several phases
as they will occur at Savannah are cal
culated in 10Th meridian or city time, IS
follows:
H. NJ. S.
| Eclipse begins ...,............6 A 30 p. m.
Middle of eclipse .........".7 50 90 p. m.
tcllpse endS commandments 70 W y. m.
The eclipse will be a small one only
about one-seventh of the moons diameter
being obscured. The first contact will oc-
cur on the eastern limb of the moon, 1859
degrees from the north point, and the last
contact on the western limb, 142 degrees
from the north point of the moon.
The curving shadow of the earth pro-
| jected upon the moon will be plainly seen,
and this evidence of the earth's rotundity
may be easily pointed out to the young.
There will be two other eclipses of the
moon this year one July and the other
Dec q. The former will not be visible in
this country, (but the latter will be beau
tiful total eclipse, beginning about sunset
and lasting about four hours. 1t viii be
plainly visible throughout North America.
There will also be three eclipses of the
sun, but none of them will be visible in this
| country. One of these, which will be total,
| will sweep over Eastern Asia on Jan. Fl,
involving, indeed, nearly the entire land
surface of the eastern hemisphere. The
| Chinese, who for many centuries have held
| these strange phenomena in superstitious
| dread, are already much exercised over
| the coming event. The eclipses of the
sun are curiously connected with their re-
ligion, and their royal astronomers for
! ages have kept the emperors notified of
! their occurrence. The present Emperor,
being notified of the eclipse of Jan. p, has
recently issued a solemn proclamation
calling the millions of his subjects to their
| religious duty in order to avert the i'm
pending wrath of heaven. 1t is not I'M
likely that the shrewder statesmen of the
F'loWery Kingdom may take advantage of
this eclipse to arouse their more ignorant
| and superstitious countrymen to united
opposition to the present threatened Rus
sian invasion.
1t is well known that Columbus took ad-
vantage of the eclipse of the moon on
March l, 1904 to relieve his fleet, then in
great distress from want of supplies by
demanding assistance from the islanders
of Jamaica. They at first refused but
| when they saw the moon actually disap-
pearing from view they We'd with each
other in furnishing the needed supplies.
The Chinese have records of eclpses
| reaching back 2,12S years before Christ,
| and one of their emperors put to death the
chief astronomers, Ho and HI for failing
| to announce the solar eclipse of 2l69 B. c.
None of the known comets are scheduled
to offer any popular attractions for this
| year, though one of these runaways of the
skies is liable to pay us visit at any time.
| Halley's great comet which has made US.
a regular visit at intervals of seventy-siX
| years for more than two thousand years,
will not arrive till 1912, though the sharp
eyed observers with their powerful tele-
| scopes have already sighted this strange
historic wonder approaching us rapidly
along its smooth elliptical path. Much
popular interest will certainly be mani
| tested in this comet in about fourteen
years, for its great size and its near APP
proach to the earth has always been a
source of needless terror to the nations at
each return.
Facing the east at dark, the richest re-
| gion of the skies is presented in the con-
| stellation Orion, marked by the line of
three stars known as the BELT" To tho
south of this Belt a little way is large
bright star called Rigel, and about an
equal distance to the north Is another
large star called Bellatrix. Farther east
and south is Sirius, the largest fixed star
in the heavens, and north of Sirius or the
Dog Star" is Procyon, or the Little Dog
Star" Between Procyon and the pole are
Castor and Pollux, the twin stars. High
up in the east is Aldebaran, the large red
star in the V-shaped group of the Hyades,
and nearly over head is Capella, a large
| white star in Auriga.
A little past the meridian in the zenith
is Arietis, a star of the second magni-
tude from which the ancients reckoned
| celestial longitude as we do terrestrial
longitude from Greenwich.
About half way between Arietis and
| Capella is a very wonderful star known
as Algol 1t is usually of the second
magnitude, but every sixty-nine hours it
| gradually loses about fve-sixths of its
light, and in about four hours it RECEIVERS
it's briIliancy. This variation i'm brillian-
| cy recurs with great regularity, and it's
| changes can be predicted to a second for
ed by dark companion revolving around
Algol almost in the plane of our vision,
and at each revolution this dark body
comes between us and Algol, thus partly
ecipsing it just as the moon eclpses the
sun. It Is estimated that Algol is about
100000 miles in diameter and its dark
companion is about 100000 miles
The diameter of our sun is S66, 500 miles
Here then we have an invisible sun, prob
ably burned out, revolving around a visi-
BILE one, or rather the two revolve about
each other, for true to the law of celestial
mechanics Algol is itself visibility swayed
in the giant waltz with its dark COM
panion. And do other dark worlds exists
in connection with other stars? Unques-
| tionably they do. Indeed we live on one
of them, and every consideration of rea-
son and analogy would lead us to con-
clude that there are millions of unseen
worlds with endless variations of physi-
cal conditions and boundless possibilities
of life and intelligence. Whichever way
we turn we find an immense life scarcely
| guessed al envelopes us, and from the in
visible atom to the unseen star all is i'm
motion, moved by some mysterious power
| tO a destiny unknown tO uS