Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-11-04
NOVEMBER HEAVENS
There is Much to Repay Close OBJ
servers This Month.
GREAT MEFEORlC SHOWER EXPECTED
What This Remarkable Display is
and Its Causes.
DATE OF THE OCCURRENCE

| written Inc Evening star
| We shall find at o'clock this evening
| eight stars of the first magnitude above
the horizon. Named in the order of their
| brilliancy, they are: Capella, in the north
/ east. in the left shoulder of Auriga the
| WAGNER Vega, at about the same alti-
J tude in the northwest the brightest star in
| the Tyre; RigeI and BeteIgeuse, barely
above the horizon in the east, the first in
the left foot. the second in the right Shout
| der of Orion; Aldebaran. in the head of
| Taurus, directly above Orion, at oue-third
| of the distance from the horizon to the
| zenith; Affair, in the west, the principal
| star in the Eagle; Fomalhaut, the eye of
| the Southern Fish, at about the same
| height as Affair, little west of south, and
| Deneb Cygni. the bright star which marks
| the head of the Northern Cross-the tail of
| the Swan-now in mid-heavens in the
northwest.
Cassiopeia, easily recognized from the w
/ formed by the five brighter stars OF the
constellation, sits erect in her most royal
position, directly above the Pole Star. At
| about the same altitude. south of the re
NTH point, is the great Square of Pegasus.
| formed by four stars of the second magnf-
| tUde. Only three of these stars belong,
| however, to the old constellation Pegasus
| the winged horse which sprang from the
| body of Medusa when her head was stricken
| off by Perseus, the steed which was ridden
| by Belle ropbon in his fight with the Chi
! maera, and which poets have been sup
| posed ever since to ride-the fourth star of
| the Square, that at the northeastern cor
ner, being in the head of Andromeda.
Andromeda and Perseus.
Andromeda contains two other stars of
the second magnitude, the three forming
curved line which extends downward in the
| direction of Capella. The middle star of
these three, eBta Andromeda, marks one
end of the maiden's belt; the lowermost,
| Gamma, is in her left foot.
Near the uppcrmost of the three stars
! which form the belt of Andromeda-two of
only the fourth magnitude-lies the famous
| rebula, visible to the naked eye hazy
star of about the fifth magnitude, and I'M
mistakably nebulous when seen through an
opera glass
cuer, Perseus, still swinging in his left
hand, as he IS represented upon a chart,
| the frightful head of Medusa, with which
he changed into rock the sea monster TO
whom the maiden had been offered as a
sacrifice, and brandishing aloft in his right
hand the sword with which the Gorgon had
been slain. The body of Perseus is formed
by an elongated group of six or eight stars,
the central one of which, Alpha Persei OF
the second magnitude lies on a continue
,tion of the curve formed by the three
brighter stars in Andromeda. At the right
of Alpha Persei may be seen another Sec
ond-magnitude star, which forms with AL
pha and Gamma Andromedae, a nearly
right-angled triangle. This star. in the
head of Medusa, is Beta Persei, better
known 10y its Arabic name Algol, the De-
mon.
The "Demon" Star.
Algol is a famous variable star. Ordinarily
it is of the SECOND magnitude, but at inter
walls of little less than three days it under
goes a remarkable change of brilliancy
falling in the space of about four hours to
the fourth magnitude and as quickly recov-
ering its usual splendor The cause of this
light change has paen found 10 be the fact
that the star. sun-for that is what it is
has a dark satellite revolving round it,
which passing periodically between US and
il cuts off a portion of its light. A mini
mum Of Algol favorably timed for observ-
ing WI occur on the 9th of this month at
about $40 pm, and a second on the 10Th
at 1880 pm.
Mira the Wonderful.
The very interesting variable star Omi-
cron Ceti, better known as Mira the Won
derful, is now visible and is in a good po-
sition for observing. The constellation Ce-
tus, the Whale. now occupies at o'clock
nearly the whole of the lower half of the
southeastern quadrant of the heavens.
With the aid of the chart given here the
star Mira near its center, should be found
easily. The star Menkar, of the second
magnitude, marks the head OF the monster:
a star of the same magnitude, Deneb Ceti,
marks its tail. Mira is at about one-third
of the distance from Menkar to Deneb Ii
is decidedly red star and is now of about
the fourth magnitude.
Mira is one of the long period variabIes
the cycle of its changes occupying about
eleven months. Whel. at its faintest it is
away below the reach of the naked eye
being then of less than the ninth snagni-
tude. Its increase in brightness and its
subsequent decrease are fairly regular.
When at its brightest 1t is usually of about
the third magnitude, but occasionally it
reaches nearly to the second, 1t did last
year, while at other times it stops at the
fourth. 1t has passed it's maximum for
this year, and is now on the wane. If a
watch is kept upon it, it will be found to
be growing fainter and in the course of
few weeks it will cease to be visible to the
naked eye
The cause of the light change of this |
and similar variables Is still a debated uies-
ton among astronomers. A large number |
of stars are known the light of which fiuc-
tuates with greater or less regularity, much |
after the manner of Mira. In all cases their |
spectra are crossed by bright lines indicat- !
ing that their light is due in great meas |
ure to glowing gases, of which one is the /
everywhere present hydrogen.
The Leonid meteors. which are due about
the middle of this month, are expected this |
year to appear In far greater than their |
usual number. In fact, a veritable
shower is predicted, such as that which |
astonished and terrified observers in the |