Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-01-05
THE SKIES In JANUARY.
Baltimore sun.


new year 1899 the moon will pass
through her phases as follows: Last
quarter on the 4th, new on the 1lth,
| first quarter OH the 18th and full on
tho Goth. Within the year 1900, the last
but one of the fast waning century, five
eclipses will take place--three Of the
sun and two Of the moon. The eclipse
Of the 18th OF January is partial one
Of the sun, not visible in the United
States We're the planes OF the moons
orbit and the ecliptic coincident it Is
| evident that there would be On eclipse
Of the moon at every full moon and an
eclipse of the sun at every new moon,
but these two planes are inclined to
each other at an anglo of 5 degrees 5
minutes, and the two points they have
common, or, in other words, their
points of intersection are called the
"nodes,n from q Latin word meaning
"hnot." An ellipse can occur only
when conjunction and opposition,
which are called by the collective name
syzygies, happon to be near the line OF
nodes so that Us the moon comes into
conjunction or opposition some parts
of the three bodies of the earth. moon
and sun may be in straight line.
The two nodes are, of course, on oppo-
| site sides of the heavens, and the inter-
val, therefore, Of the suns passage
through the nodes must be about half
o year. Now, the moon comes into
the line OF the syzygies about every
| two weeks, and so the sun cannot but
be near enough to node for one or
two eclibses, possibly even for three,
every six months Ii is in place here
to remark that the nodes have retro
grade motion, performing circuit
around the ecliptic once in about 10
| years. in consequence of which the
eclipse months are continually chang
ing. The time required by the sun in
| passing around from node to the
same node again is very nearly 2i7
days, II period sometimes called tho
ECLIPSE year, 1t is matter of
wonder to not o few--and quite natur-
ally. too-that astronomers can calcu-
late the occurrence Of ellipses with
such astonishing precision, but the
astronomers have made themselves so
thoroughly familiar with what we not
appropriately may call the geometry
of the heavens" especially as to the
orbits OF the moon, the earth and the
! planets, that the calculation Of
eclipses, though by no means a simple
! tllu ohsy buts 10 uOb tllV iuUSb uiliiCuib
problem with which the astronomer
has to grapple. 1t is the reducing of
the geometric part OF the whole matter
TO such nice limits which sheds so
| great o lustre upon the achievements
of this great science and renders it one
of the most iliustrious In the whole
splendid array of sciences from which
mankind derives SO many practical I'D
vantages.
We have had occasion to speak OF
the famous nebular hypothesis Of
Laplace as very ingenious cosmogony,
sufficiently plausible to render it, at
any rate, in its essential features,
| lively recent date Mr.. Lochyer pre-
pared a new hypothesis, called by him
| the meteoric, which caused no little
surprise and almost threatened to over
throw the older theory. Mr. Lochyer
thinks it probable that the heavenly
bodies in their present condition have
been formed by the aggregation Of
meteoric matter, instead of the con-
densation Of gaseous mass, as asserted
by Laplace.. He thinks that the nebu-
lar are meteoric swarms In the initial
stages OF condensation. As aggregation
goes on, the nebulae change into stars,
and in this way he suggests what may
be called the meteoric constitution Of
the universe, but, as very able
astronomical writer says, the meteoric
| theory of nebula does not in the least
| invalidate, or even to great extent
modify, the reasoning Of Laplace in re-
spect to the development of suns and
| system from gaseous nebula. He
adds that the old hypothesis has no
| quarrel with the new. In the gigantic
| strides the sciences have made within
| the last two or three centuries, espe-
cially the present one, astronomy has
not remained behind any of them, but
it would not be reasonable to suppose
that there are not many points, even
in SO highly. developed science as
astronomy certainly must be consid-
cred, that arc still unrevealed. AS In
all other sciences there is In astronomy
steady progress to which IL would be
| folly to set any final and definite
limits. New discoveries, new and i'm
proved methods will ever add new
impulse to scientific researches and in
| vestigation, and shed an ever brighter
light on subjects that MS yet are not
fully explained and are yet more or less
subject to more speculation.
In course Of tho month the sun will
sweep through an arc Of nearly 6 de
grees in declination, coming by that
amount nearer tho equator by the end
| of it.
The planets Mercury and Saturn are
both in Sngittarius and act as morn
| ing stars. Venus is in Scorpio and may
be seen in all her brilliancy during the
early morning hours, even for con-
siderable length Of time after the
morning twilight begins to irradiate
the skies. Mars Is in Cancer, and
will be brightest on the 18th OF Janu-
airy, coming on that day in opposition
to the sun. This red planet can be
early portion Of the morning while yet
| the mantel Of night covers the earth.
Jupiter is In Virgo and also shines as
a morning star.
AT about 9 O'Clock in the january
evenings Auriga and Taurus will be
the principal consultations on the
meridian OF our latitude. Looking
toward the northwest beautiful white
star is too bright and conspicuous not
| to attract at once the attention Of any
| one that takes any interest at all in the
wonderful map Of the heavens This
is Capella, in the constellation Auriga
or the Charioteer. Capella i'd, with
Vega, the brightest star In our latitude
after Sirius and Arcturus. Being in
character similar to our sun, it Is GER
tainly o great deal larger. though how
much larger it is yet impossible to say.
The. brightest stars in Auriga form q
kind Of pentagon, the extremities OF
one side Of which are marked by
Capella or Alpha Aurigae, and Menka.
| Imam, or Beta, bright star of tho