The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-06

! ems were 1t to move rounu the sun uni
formly at its present rate.
| WHITTIER WE ARE TENDING.
| The proper motion of the sun is, of
course, of special interest for us dwell
ers of planet on which every manifes-
tation of life and every kind Of energy
! existing on it's surface or its interior is,
| directly and indirectly derived from the
sun, We have had occasion more than
once-the subject being of the most in
| tense interest-to speak Of the suns
motion In space and the point in the
heavens toward which it is moving,
| called the "apex of the SUMS way"
which up to quite recent researches was
| supposed to be situated In the constel-
| lation of Hercules. From a recent ar
| ticle by one of the ablest astronomers
in tie world, Professor Simon Newcomb,
| U. S. N, we learn that this apex is in
the constellation Lyra. He says:
Former Investigators based their con-
illusions entirely on stars having con-
| siderable proper motions, these being,
In general, the nearer to us. The fact
Is, however, that 1t is better to include
stars having small proper motion, be-
cause the advantage of their great
number more than counterbalance the
disadvantage of their distance. From
great many recent and very careful OBJ
serYationes the result has been deduced
that the apex of the solar motion Is in
the general direction of the constella-
ton Lyra and probably very near the
star Vega, the brightest of that constel-
lation.' The reader will recollect that
the constellation Lyra is adjacent to
that of Hercules, so that the difference
of the results Of former Investigations
and the most recent Is not so very
great. The fact that the apex Of the
SUMS way Is near the star Vega con-
fers another distinction upon that fine
star. 1t Is the eighth In the list Of first
magnitude stars and one of the bright
est seen in our latitude; and, as the
reader will remember, will be our flu
ture pole star, so that the time will
come when the whole armament In it's
diurnal motion will move around a
point which Is near that point toward
which the sun will sail with all his no
BILE retinue of planets and satellites AS
to the actual velocity Of the solar sys-
tenn the most recent Investigations give
1t at ten miles per second.
It1E GUNS ElLl4Al1OINS.
In looking overhead at about eight
O'clock in the October evenings con-
stellation will at once arrest our atten-
ton by its striking contour. This Is
Pegasus We see a large square with
two handles, each on the two vertices
of a diagonal. Three Of the stars of the
square and the handle on It's southwest
ern corner constitute the chief contigu-
ration of the constellation Pegasus or
the Winged Horse The remaining star
in the square, with its handle, belongs
to the constellation Andromeda and is
called Alpha Andromeda or Alpheratz,
though occasionally in older maps we
see it designated as Delta Pegasi The
other stars of the Great Square of Pc
gasus are successfully called Beta Pc
gasi or Scheat. Alpha Pegasi or Mar
kab, to which the Pegasus handle Is at
tached, and Gamma or Algen!b. The
handle bends at the star Theta toward
the northwest, and its end is marked
by Epsilon or Emf. The square marks
the body of the Horse and the handle
the neck and head, 1t Is worthy of
note that Algenib and Alpheratz, in the
square, and Caph, in Cassiopeia fix the
~ mt iiiclluiStI lpl WHICH itGStU llleN
GRE sometimes called the three
guides pointing out the direction of
the meridian through the pole. The
reader is reminded that from the great
circle the spherical distance of all the
heavenly bodies are measured South
of Theta the zodiacal constellation
Aquarius, or the Water bearer, stretch
es out in southeastern direction. The
most notable configuration is the little
Y of third and fourth magnitude stars
the water urn," from which
Aquarius pours out the stream that me-
anders down TO the southeast and south
for thirty degrees till 1t reaches the
Southern Fish, or Piscs Austra1is,
made conspicuous by the first magni-
tude star Fomalhant. There is not a
single star in Aquarius that exceeds
the third magnitude, and for this rea-
son it cannot fairly be called bright |
but as the last of the |
twelve consultations of the Zodiac 1t Is
of Importance. Besides being first !
star Fomalhaut in the |
Southern Fish, is of Importance as one
Of the so-called nautical stars, whose |
true places for every day in the year
are given in that book so Indispensable |
to the mariner-the Nautical Almanac
The spherical distance of these nauti-
,al stars, Of which Fomaihaut Is one,
rom the moon is given in that almanac
'or every bird hour Of every day in the
year. The mariner, by means of the
sextant, measures the distance of the
moon from any of the nautical stars,
II with that laid down in the
Nautical Almanac and from this differ
,nce is enabled to determine how far he
$ east or west of the meridian of
Greenwich, or, in other words, deter
mines his longitude. This method, |
,aled the lunar method, is one of the
various methods of finding the longi-
ude at sea, and it proves that in ter
estrial measurements we have often to
'esort to the stars strange as this fact
nay appear to those who are ignorant
# the magical power of mathematics
The fine considerations Cygnus and
Auuila and the smaller ones, Delphinus
md Sagita, are still high up. but slight
y bending toward the western horizon,
While the fiery star Antares and the
oval planet Jupiter are near the hori-
on, soon to vanish from our view
4yra, with the magnificent star Vega,
5 midway between the meridian and
he western horizon, while down in the
asst Taurus, with the fine cluster of the
Iyades and Pleiades, is slowly climb
ng up, the harbinger of the approach