The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-06
THE SKIES IN OCTOBER.
pITENOMEN1 OF THE HEfVENS
FOR THIRTY DAYS no COME.

Position of the Planets-Physical unt
Astronomical sciences-Beautics o
Autumn ConstelIatton-ThoS tnrs.
DUNG the month of October the
moons phases will be as follows: First
quarter on the 1St and last, full on the
9Th, last quarter on the 18th and new
on the 23d. She will be in perigee or
the 9Th and in apogee on the 21st. The
sun will be a little over three degrees
south of the equator on the list and In
the course of the month traverse an arc
of over eleven degrees of south declina-
ton, so that at the conclusion of the
month it will be nearly fourteen degrees
twenty-eight minutes south of the
equator and about nine degrees from
its southern limit the winter sostice.
The planet Mercury will be success
sively in Virgo, Libra and Scorpio,
while Venus will be in Cancer the
greater part of the month, but enter
Leo toward its termination. She Will
rise soon after wo o'clock in he morn
ing during the earlier portion of the
month, but near three o'clock during
the later. Venus Is still very brilliant
and certainly the finest object in the
morning skies. Up to the time of the
famous Calico. in the first portion OF
the seventeenth century, it had been
believed that Venus could not show us
more than half her illuminated sur
face, since according to the Ptolemaic
hypothesis she was always between us
and the supposed orbit Of the SUM-
When, therefore, in the year 1910 Cali
leo, by means of the telescope discov-
cred by him, proved that Venus showed
the gibbous phase as we'll as the cres-
cent the Copernican theory of the So
lar system received a very powerful ar
gument in it's favor since this fact GER
tainly disproved the general truth of
the ancient system.
The planet Mars Is in Cancer and
rises soon after midnight, also forming
a brilliant object in the morning skies,
since in brightness 1t exceeds all fixed
stars except Sirius. Jupiter is in Scor-
pic. This beautiful planet forms with
Antares the brightest star in that con-
stellation, and at present at short dis
lance from the kingly planet, a very
stellar picture, and cannot fail to en-
gage the Observers attention until
about half-past seven, when it will
vanish from our view. About fifteen
degrees above Jupiter the planet Sa-
turn, too, will shine as an evening star
in the constellation Sagittarius, almost
~, ha nf stpl1a tinro n nd
Ophiuchus. Saturn will set about an
hour later than it's brother planet, Ju-
piter
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.
The great results which the science Of
astronomy so pre-eminently has
achieved are due first to patient obser-
walton and second to the application Of
mathematical analysis. The splendid
development of physics and chemistry
too, have contributed In vast degree
to some of the most important astro-
nomical discoveries, especially as TO
the physical nature of the heavenly
bodies. 1t is criterion of the power
and greatness of science, if it can make
other sciences tributary to itself, just
as the magnitude of river Is COM
with the number of it's trib-
utaries. We are apt to smile with con-
tempt at the numerous and vigorous eff
forts of former ages to accomplish the
exact quadrature of the circle, the
transmutation of metals, the perpetual
motion, all of which have now become
paradox, but we unfortunate
ly become oblivious of the fact that
some of the most interesting and inn
J,,-o OH Nf low,
ematics sprung from the problem of
the circle; we forget that the
of the alchemist developed
into the science of modern chemistry
and that the vain efforts of the astrol-
oyer at prognosticating the future
events of a human life by the conjunc-
ton of planets gave rise to profound
pr study of the stars, and the result of
the vain research after perpetual mo-
ton terminated in the greatest of all
the congratulations of physical science
the principle of the conservation Of
Before the invention Of tele-
scopes the observation of the planets
and stars could not give US much valu-
able Information as to their size and |
distances, but with our present wonder |
July improved instruments and with |
he aid of the highly developed sciences
If physics and chemistry we have |
sained an incomparably more accurate |
than 1t was possible former |
v. not alone of the comparatively near |
planets, but also of the enormously dis |
.ant fixed stars themselves.
PROPER MOTION OF STARS.
Coperncus, the founder of the pres
mt solar system; Kepler, who subject
"a it to fixed laws, and even Newton,
Who placed 1t upon a mathematical and |
;olid basis and thereby established its
ruth beyond the shadow Of doubt,
would perhaps have smiled at the idea
# proper motion of the sun and the
liked stars, as at those times the means
we're lacking of detecting an almost in
mite displacement of stars in their re-
ative position, while now these mo-
ions are no longer a matter of doubt
lmong intelligent people. If Newton's'
treat law of gravitation is true-and
night we not just as we'll doubt the I'M
of that law as that of the
table wherever reason
ne beings deal with nunbers?-the
roper motion of all the stars becomes
matter of absolute necessity, and we
re irresistibly forced to admit that in
he whole universe there is not point
! state of absolute rest except the
enter of gravity of the whole, WHEREBY
r that may be. This is an irresistible
5llogism, che truth OF which. no shep-