The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1900-11-09
The Heavens In Noremher.

The most important astronomical
events Of November are the annular
eclipse Of the sun on the 2lst and the
meteoric shower OF the l4th.
The first OF these phenomena is OF
little interest to Americans, since it takes
place when our side OF the earth is
turned away from the sun. The path OF
annular eclipse lies chiefly in the Indian
Ocean, but crosses South Africa at one
end and Western Australia at the other.
The duration Of the annular phrase is
quite long, varying from fve to nearly
seven minutes.
There is more hope that we may see a
great shower OF the Leonid meteors this
year; but those who, like the writer,
watched In vain for them year ago, are
disposed to follow Hosea Biglow's advice,
and not to prophesys unless they know.
And there are several causes, any one OF
which, II fully operative, would prevent
our seeing conspicuous display.
In the first place, IL has been shown
that the orbit of that part Of the meteor
swarm which gave rise to the shower Of
1867 has been so changed by the attrac-
tion of Jupiter and Saturn that it no
longer exactly intersects that Of the
earth. II this change is great enough to
keep even the outer parts of the meteor
swarm away from the earth's orbit,
there will be no more Leonid showers,
uniess at some future time their orbit Is
changed back again by some favorable
planetary action. But II IL by no means
certain that the actual change in the
orbit is as great as this
Secondly.-The great showers Of Leo
nids recorded in recent times were In
1900, 1888, and 1886-7-9. Taking the
middle of the last three as the main
shower, the interval between the show
ers comes out "a years, instead OF the
previously supposed 33H and the next
great shower Is due In 1901, with per-
haps smaller ones in 1900 and 1902.
This theory, which Is due to Prof. w. III.
Pickering, seems to the writer OF the
present note to be the most probable ex-
planation Of the failure Of the expected
shower in 1900.
Thirdly. Even II the shower occurs,
1t may be that the impressive part OF it,
which lasts but few hours, may be Wis
ible only In the Eastern Hemisphere,
and that we may thus miss it, In spite
OF all this uncertainty, it will be we'll
worth while to watch the sky on the
14th and 10Th. For the great shower,
II it does appear, will be the grandest Of
ell phenomena, and at the same time
one OF sufficient rarity to make 1t douhly
important not to lose chance to see it.
II will be hardly worth while to start
the watch before midnight, as at that
hour Leo has barely risen. Unfortu-
nately, the waning moon Is in this part
OF the sky, and only the brighter mete-
ors will be visible. But even 80, should
many Of them appear, the divergence of
these paths in all directions from the
radiant point" inside the sickle of Leo
will be conspicuous and will afford one
OF the finest natural examples of per-
spective effect
At9 p. IN. on Nov. Is the most brill
liant part OF the sky is near the eastern
horizon. just south OF east is Orion.
and the still brighterstars Betelgeux ION
the lefty and Rigel Con the right afford
q striking contrast in color, the former
being strong red, and the latter q pure
white. North OF east, and also low
down, Gemini, marked by the twin stars
Castor and Pollux, OF near the first mag
nitude, south from which extend two
lines OF stars In which o little imagina-
tion sees the twins themselves Above
Orion, Aldebaran and the Pleades mark
the position Of Taurus, and to the north,
over Gemini, is Cappella, the brightest
star of Auriga. The great square OF Pc
gasus Is little past the meridian. A
conspicuous row Of stars extends from
the northeast corner through Androme-
da and Perseus towards Auriga. The
huge extent of Cetus fills most of the
southeastern sky, and Aries is higher
In the southwest the only conspicuous
star is Fomalhaut. Vega and Affair are
we'll down in the west, and Cygnus is
higher up. Cassopeia is almost above
tho pole, and the Dipper is opposite,
skirting the northern horizon. To the
rIghtef Vega is the head Of Draco, whose
curving body extends for long distance
between the Great and Little Bears
Scientific American.