Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-04

The Horizon august Is 81. at 9-s-7PM
r. Brooks. at Geneva. n. ". discovered IN
the constellation Aries. about ten degrees
northwest OF the star Menkar a comet
which IS described having a bright stel-
lar nucleus and broad tail. The comet
mas a Eortherly motion. This. being the
second comet discovered this year, Will be
known as Comet r. 1909 1t is said to be
the tNe1ty-second comet discovered by this
distinguished cOmet-seeker
New Star in AquiIa
Prof. E. c. Pickering. director of the
Harvard College observatory, announces
that Mrs. Fleming in examining the Draper
memorial photographs has discovered a
new star in the Eagle, ten or twelve degrees
southwest of Affair. The announcement
was seen too late for marking the s,ars
exact position on our chart. The s;ar is
found on eighteen photographs taken be-
tween April u, 1899, and October "a lS9l,
ana Is not found on any of the nine ty-sik
photographs taken between August II 1885.
ana November l, 1855. On April 2l 1893 II
was of the seventh magnitude: by the fol-
lowing october IL had fallen TO the tenth
magnitude. 1t is still visible through tee
hiteen-inch telescope of the obserI atorv
and is now between the eleventh and
twelfth maSnitudes. Its spectrum in July
lS"S' was OF the ordinary type of those of
new stars. 1t now gives the spectrum of a
nebula
Last year Mrs. Fleming discovered in
the same way a nova" or new star in
SagittariUs, at a point about twelve de-
sfees southwest Of this. in the Eagle That
star, found on photographs taken in lSAs
when at Its brightest, was of the fifth mag
nitude, and therefore was visible to the
naked eye, but was not noticed by any oh
server. Twenty degrees farther to the
southwest is the position of the famous
new star Of 1904. known as KrpIer's star
Al three of these positions are in the
Milky Way.
The August meteors may now be looked
for on any evening. These meteors. known
among professional star gazers as the
'ferseids," from the circumstance that
wherever seen they shoot in tracks which
prolonged backward lead 10 a point in the
constellation Perseus, begin to put in their
appearance in the latter part of july and
the display is not fairly over until about
the epth OF August. 1t is usually the finest
on the nights Of the 9Th and 10th of the
month or, IN late years, the 10th and lIth
These meteors circle around the sun in
the path Of a comet known as Gomez iii
I>"Z. the period of which is about Iol
years. They are supposed to be fragments
OF me comet, which is probably itself only
d larry dense mass of meteorites and they
seem, unlike the ''Leonids" which shot
IN November, to be pretty uniformly dis
tfibuted along their whole line of march
Scarcely a year passes that weather nor
!ltuhS' flne display of these Perspfds
is not somewhere witnessed. The met.ors
are above The average for briliancy They
move rather slowly and not infrequently
are OF extraordinary magnifcepca Tba
meteor Tadiant''-the point from ulbirb
they seem To shoots marked on the chart
given herewith. AT about . O'clock in will
De situated directly beneath the W-shana1
inquire of Cassiopeia, between north and
northeast.
The Planets.
Mercury was in inferior conjunction NTH
the sun on the first of this month. and will
therefore. be a morning star throughout The
month On the 18th it will be at its great
est elongation west from the sun-1S de-
greeS j. minutes-when It will rise. very
nearly in the east, about an hour and a
quarter before the sun.
Venus has been morning star sinca
July y. and is now splendid ornament Of
the eastern sky. rising about two hours be-
iotG the sun. She will be at her greatest
DrlIlancy on the lith of this month
Mars is a morning star near the eastern
border of the constellation Gemini. rising
al about 1:3o am During the month il
Will advance eastward about ~ degrees
Jupiter is still brilliant evening star in
the Scorpion. on the 25th of the month it
VIII he in quadrature with the sun. cross
ing the meridian a pm.
Saturn, near the eastern border of Sag
ittarius. is an evening star, crossing the
meridian at about pm. The rings are
now open to their widest, their northern
face being turned toward us. and the
planet is. therefore. at its best as a teie-
SCOPE object. hut unfortunately for OBJ
servers in our northern latitude II runs too
low to be seen well. This remark applies
also to Jupiter.
Uranus. now an evening star. some six or
eight degrees east of Jupiter. is visible on a
clear evening to the naked eye. Extend
ing eastward from Beta Scorpii-the bright
star close beside Jupiter-may be seen a
curving line of four stars of about the fifth
magnitude. The eaSternmost and faintest
of these stars is Uranus
Neptune. in Taurus. is a morning star,
rising at about 100 am Neptune is the
only one of the large planets invisible to
the naked eye. its stellar magnitude being,
according to Prof. Z. c. Pickering, about
midway between the seventh and eighth.