Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-09-10

An early riser, looking at Venus at
about o'clock in the morning as she
shines with luster that is peculiarly
her own. will not likely take her for
any other planet or star. In fact, the
only celestial object that may be said
| to vie with Venus in brilliance-is Jupi-
ter, and even this magnificent nlanet
must yield the palm of beauty to her
sister planet when she is at her maxi
mum brightness. The planet Mars is
| in Gemini, rising about an hour before
Venus and acting, like her, as morn
ing star. Jupiter is still lingering in
Scorpio, enhancing by his royal pres
ence the intrinsic beauty of that con-
stellation. She will set between and
10 in the evening. Saturn, acting
at present also as an evening star, is in
Sagittarius, almost on the boundary
line that separates this constellation
from Ophiuchus. It sets about an hour
later than Jupiter. The two planets
Jupiter and Saturn, as evening stars,
and Venus and Mars, as morning stars,
lend to the nocturnal September skies
a particularly fine appearance.
Given in mere numbers no one, in
Guiding even those who are familiar
with large numbers and their true
meaning, has an adequate conception
of the vastness of our solar system.
and still less so Of the vastness of the
sidereal heaven and in order to convey
more distinct idea Of these it becomes
indispensable to resort to suitable COM
PARSONS AS to the size of our solar
system the famous Herschel has given
us a very interesting illustration.
"ChCose any well-leveled field. On it
place a globe two feet in diameter
This will reprenst the sun; Mercury
will be represented by a, grain of must
ard seed on the circumference of a cir
Gle 164 feet in diameter for it's orbit:
Venus, a pea on a circle 284 feet in di-
ameter; the EARTH also pea on a cir
Gle of 430 feet: Mars. a rather large
pinhead on circle of $40 feet; the
asteroids, grains of sand in orbits OF
1000 to 1000 feet; Jupiter, moderate
sized orange in a circle nearly half a
mile across; Saturn, small orange on
a circle of four-fifths of mile; Uranus.
fu1l-sized cherry or small plum upon
the circumference of a circle more than
mile and a half, and finally Neptune,
a good-sized plum on a circle about
two miles and a half in diameter. ;"
Passing now from our system to the
siderea1 heaven, the nearest star would
on this scale be on the opposite side Of
the globe; that is, 5000 miles away.
| For sidereal distance, therefore, the So
j called astronomical unit, the distance
of the sun from the earth, becomes
wholly inadequate and unsuitable as a
unit though it amounts to the respect
| able quantity of over 100000 miles,
and astronomers have chosen the So
called light-year as unit, which is the
| distance which that swift traveller light
would traverse in one year. From the
| fact that we are able to see bodies at
such almost inconceivable distances at
all it is easy to conclude that these
bodies must themselves be of stipend
GUS size In fact, in many cases where
an approximate calculation is possible
and has been effected, the results show
that our sun. with which we always
connect the idea of immense vastness.
dWindles almost into insignificance
when compared with these orbs,
thought not altogether devoid of hui
initiation. From the eternal motion of
the planets, the rapid motion in space
of the sun itself, and the observed mo-
ton of many stars it follows by an
analogy which is simply irresistible
that without an exception, all celestial
bodies are and cannot be otherwise
than in motion, and still for thousands
of years the shape of the consultations
has not undergone material change.
From ancient records we can infer that
the Great and Lesser Bears and other
familiar star CONGREGATIONS are the
same now as they were thousands Of
years ago, almost impressing us with
their immutability. We must not for
get, however that in astronomy three
or four thousand years, to which the
most ancient records date back, are a
vanishing quantity and that, conse-
quently, after lapse of many thou
Sduu6 I'll years Cu0 COuSLOlldI1OAS Cd1A-
not but assume a shape more or less
different from their present ones.
When, however, this comes to pass it is
very questionable whether the earth
will any longer be an inhabitable body,
for it seems that each planetary body,
not to speak of the sun itself, has it's
allotted time for conditions that render
organic life on them possible.
A very recent discovery was that of a
comet on the morning of the 23d ofJuly
by Dr. R. Brooke, director of the Smith
observatory, Geneva, N. Y. The comet
is not visible to the naked eye, but a
beautiful object in the telescope. This
| is the twenty-second comet discovered
by that interchangeable observer. An
other recent discovery was that of a
new variable star 1t was discovered
in the constellation Cassiopela by the
wife of Prof w. Cereski of Moscow by
means of plates. 1t ranges from the