Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-09-30
SEPTEMBER STARS.
Some of the Luminaries to Be Seen
This Month.
theories tina! Have Been Advanced Concerning
the Milky Way.

theories that Rave seen ADVANCED concerning
the Milky Way.
Augusta star GazerS and amateur as
tr1nomers will be Interested to know that
,he principal consultations which. are
now above the horizon at Q +. NJ. are tho
Swan GyGnus). or Northern Cross, Iii
rectly overhead: the Eagle. the Tyre,
Hercules. the Dragon Draco). Pegasus
ana the Dolphin Job's Coffin). All
grouped about the Swan, as may be seen
from the planisphere: the Scorpion. or
phiuchus ANA SagittariuS. in the south
west; CasSiopeia. Perseus ana Andromcda
in the northeast. ana low in the north
west the Great Dippcr in the Ursa Major.
The first magnitude stars now visible
a; the hour named are: Vega. in the
Lyre, nearly overhead; -Arcturus, near the
horizon between west and northwest; Al
tair in the Eagle. nearly south and at
three fifth Of the distance from the hori-
zon N the zenith; Fomalhuut, the EYE Of
thu southern Fish. low in the southeast:
An,ares, the Scorpions heart" equally
low in the southwest; ana Deneb Cycni
the bright star which marks the head Of
q
. the rival in brlliancy Of Vega
and Arcturus. will rise in the northeast
The bright yellow star seen in the
southwest. some 10 degrees above the
ruddy .Nntares is the planet Saturn
Jupiter also is now above the horizon III
the early evening, but sets before {.
o'clock.
From now on for several months thu
famous variable star Algol--al Ghu, the
"demon"-will be favorably situated for
observing. Il is now at the hour of our
| observation low in the northeast.
The peculiarly of this star is that after
shining for about 2i2 days as a star of the
second magnitude, it falls in the space Of
| about four hours to the fourth magn,
tude, and in the course of the next iUm
hours il RECEIVERS its usual brilliancy. The
cause IF this remarkable behavior is the
fact that the star has Il dark companion
o. satellite, revolving around it in an
| orbit set nearly cdgcwise toward us. 50
| that periodically the dark body passes be
| tween the star and us and cuts off por-
ton of its light.
y minimum of AlGol will occur on the
| llth OF this month, at about 10 2. NJ. ana
another on the 18th, at about l.. NJ.
The Milky Way now passes At Z. NJ.
directly overhead, arching the heavens
| from the Scorpion, in the southwest. to
| Perseus, in the northeast.
| This remarkable. cloud like, family.
| luminous belt of the night sky has Iong
| pcrplexed ana still perp.exes astronomers
| The only thing known about it with GER
| tainty is that its luminosity is due to the
| blended light of millions of telescope
| stars. But are these stars suns compar.
able with our own in size. IN which case
| they must be at almost unthnkable dis
tances from u.s.. or may they not be com.
| paratlVely small bodies, at no very great
distance from Us, as star distances 20?
| The elder Herschel adopted the former
/ Of these two possible suggestions in ex
| pianation of the Milky Way. ana his view
with various notifications, has generally
| been accepted by astronomers as on the
| whole the more probable of the two.
| Hcrschel conceived that the millions OF
| suns which make up the universe are ar
| ranged, not in the globular form which
| the sidereal heavens seem to have, but in
| the form Of an enormous disc, the sun be
| ING located somewhere near its center
lie regarded the Milky Way as an optical
| effect due to the circumstance that in
| this direction we look into more pro
| found depth of stars-of suns succeeding
| suns in almost ineXhaustible profusion-
than when we face in direction perpen-
| dicular to it.
Photography has been applied in recent
years to the study of this question of the
nature Of the Milky Way, and its testi
mony is not favorable to the Herscheian
| theory. on the contrary, the impression
which one cannot avoid receiving from
| Photographic presentations Of the Milky
| Way, particularly from a study OF the
| beautiful photographs taken by Prof
| Barnard with a short-focus lens with the
object of bringing out general features is
| that it is cloud like in its character. and.
| moreover, that it is cloud or mass OF
| clouds of no great thickness, relatively
| to its breadth.
In other words. the Milky Way presents
| in the photographs the same appearance
as To the naked eye. but brought out with
| greater clearness, particularly when the
| pictures are looked at from little dis.
| lance and in proper light. These pict-
| ures have peculiar. fleecy, or curdled
| appearance. Here and there in them are
areas of more than the average bright
ness, suggestive of gathering and CON
densation of the "star dust in these
places. and here and there are darker
portions, some Of them almost destitute
Of stars, spots nearly black, which look
like openings in the cloud permitting our
| vision to penetrate here through the
Milky Way to a starless region beyond
| These photographs have rendered it prac.
tically' certain that Herschel was entirely