Evening star., 1899-02-04

which attention has been called by Prof.
Barnard. There are in the Milky WAY
many hebulae and extensive areas which
abound in family luminous, nebulous mat
ter, unseen with the naked eye but brought
out clearly by photography. There can be
little doubt that these objects are actually
IN the Milky Way, not merely in line with
IL, and that the nebulous matter euvelops
the stars with which IL Is associated Now.
some of the stars which are thus envelopad
IN nebulous matter and which have there
lore, the appearance of lying in the midst
OF the Milky Way. are bright enough to bs
seen with the naked eye. one Of these
nebulous patches. discovered by Barnard in
the course of his work of photographing
the Milky Way. lies close upon the north
ern border of the constellation Scorpio. In
1t are several naked-eye stars. one OF
winch, Sigma Scorpio, is of the fourth mag
nitude, and Prof. Barnard thinks that he
has good evidence that Antares. the ''Scor-
plon Heart a star Of the first magnitude.
Is also connected with this nebula and.
therefore, lies in the Milky Way There is
reason TO think that these bright stars are
comparable in size with the sun. II this is
SO, then the faint stars with which they
are associated. and which form the ground
work Of the Milky Way, must be very much
smaller than the sun. How much smaller
they are says Barnard. lit would not he
safe to estimate, but they. must be hun-
dreds, perhaps thousands, OF times smaller"
overthrowing a Theory.
Photography. then. if these conclusions
are well-grounded. has swept away CONS
pletely the disk theory Of the great Hcr-
schel, and with it the enormous star dis.
tances - distances of ten. twenty thirtf
thousand light years''-which have rcsteG
for their main support on the supposed pro,
fundity of the Milky Way. There is no
longer any reason for supposing that thg
universe extends farther in this than in
any other direction. How far il extends in
any direction is a question on which there
Is still room for wide differences of opiuion
among astronomers. Some of the foremost
among them are beginning to hold much
more sober views on this subject than were
prevalent only a few years ago.
Planet "De.''
The asteroid discovered last August by
Witt, at Berlin, travelling in an orbit
smaller than that of Mars. and which has
been labeled DO" after the fashion now
in vogue in naming asteroids, still con-
unues 10 awaken interest among aslron,
olnors. DR.. Chandler thinks that. in Nilx
OF lis exceptionally interesting character.
it should be honored above the common
herd of its associates. and he uPgesrs 10
its discOVerer that he name il Pluto.
The orbit of Do is ellipJICal that
though when at its nearest to the sun IL
comes within 13.o0o.CoO miles of the earth's
orbit, when at its greatest distance from
the sun it is considerably outside The orbit
OF Mars. Ii was al this point Of greatest
distance from the sun on June %. ISIS. At
the time of its discovery IL was Of about
the eleventh magnitude: when at Its near
est 20 the earth it should be of about The
sixth magnitude. just visible to the naked
eye and easily visible through an opera
glass.
Its next particularly favorable ''uppusi-
ton, when We shall get our best view Of
it, Will occur January =, 1919. DO can
hardly be more than twenty-five miles in
diameter. and is probably simply an arless
and waterless chunk of rock
The Planets.
Mercury viii be a morning star until the
9th, but not visible.
Venus is a splendid morning star, in tho
southeast She was at her greatest bril-
liancy on the 9Th of last month.
Mars is. evening star shining nearly
throughout the night, and is now by far
the most interesting Of the planets Its
retrograde, or westward, movement has
been very noticeable during the past month
This movement will continue until the
2Sth, when Mars will be about degrees
southwest of Pollux. after that date its
movement viii be direct, or toward the
east. Mars was at its brightest for this
year, and in its best position for observing
on the 18th of last month.
Jupiter rises about midnight a little
south of east. and is a splendid object dur
ing the morning hours. Saturn and Uranus
are both morning stars rising between 3
and am. Neptune, an evening star, is
very close TO the tip OF the southern horn
Of Taurus. appearing as a star OF the
tenth magnitude, far below the limit of