The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-02
THE JANUARY HEAVENS
The Twentieth Century Began
Without an Evening Star.
Neptune Too Small to BE Placed in
That ClnsS-A Brilliant Spectacle
After Dnrk-Tbe Earth's Nearest
Approach to the sun To-day.

The new century began without an
evening star, for Neptune, being a tele-
scopic object. does not count any more
than any of the numerous asteroids. Put
the evening sky is magnificent, even with
out planetary aid. Owing to the carly
hour in which darkness falls it is still
possible, by looking soon as the sun
has set. to see brilliant Vega far down
in the northwest. The brightness of the
star is a sufficient Identification. The only
other first magnitude star in that quar,er
is Affair. which appears farther TO the
south at about the same distance from
the horizon. 1t is one of a row of three
stars, Affair being in the middle, Sarazed
to the north and Alshain to the south.
But Il is the eastern sky, at a little
later hour, that is truly glorious with
greater number of brilliant stars than at
any other season of the year. The atmos-
phere is also likely to be clear and trans
parent, which compensates for any cold
that may strike the gaZer.
First look at Orion with the straight
row of three bright stars. The two first
magnitude stars, Betelguese and Rigel, are
conspicuous at few degrees distance on
either side of the row. Two other stars
of the second magnitude form with these
two kind of square enclosing the three
stars.
Looking upward, this line OF stars
points out the constellation Saurus, with
the PIe.ades and Hyades. The brightest
star of this constellation is Aldebaran,
one of the Hyades. Like Betelguese, il is
of deep red color.
Northward from Betelguese at a consid-
cradle distance We find two bright stars
separated by about ten moon-breadths.
These are Castor and Pollux. named after
the famous twins of mythology, Castor
being al this hour the higher in the sky.
The constellation Gemitri. to which tht So
stars belong. contains beautiful cluster
of stars which are brought out by an
opera glass. They lie not far from half
way between the Twins. A little lower
than the line joining these stars is the
bright star Procyon.
Looking downward, the three stars in
Orion point to a star whose superior
brightness causes it TO be remarked by all
observers. This is Sirius, also known as
the Dog Star. That it was the brightest
of the fixed stars was known ages ago,
and many curious ideas were formed con-
corning it.
The ancient Egyptians noticed that
when this star rose with the sun the
flooding of the Nile followed very soon.
With the usual conceit of ignorant man
kind they concluded that this coincidence
was arranged for their special benefit,
and called the Dog Star" what they con-
ceived to be a celestial watchdog, whose
sole mission was to warn the Egyptian
farmers when the muddy Nile was about
to overflow.
Sirius has brightness more than
three times as great as that of a standard
first magnitude star. Hence il is not sur
prising that the ancients, noting that the
hottest days of summer came at the
time when the Dog Star rose with the
sun, decided that the Eultry days were
due to the formers powerful assistance.
Hence these were called the dog days
name still applied loosely TO the hottest
part of summer, though Sirius rises he
liacaily nearly a month earlier than he
did two thousand years ago.
The extraordinary brightness of this
star is due TO three causes. First, it is,
SO to speak in the prime of life. Il
shines with the intense wilderness of new
stars, not yellow or red like many stars
presaging the total blackness of ais lutte
death, as in the case of the unseen COM
panion of the variable star Algoll. Sec
ond it is one Of the nearest stars. 1t Is
more than five hundred thousand times as
travels 1S6, 700 miles a second requires
eight and one-half years to reach us
Nevertheless, of the myriads of stars,
only two are certainly known to be near
er. Third. 1t is of enormous mass, being
not less than ten times as great as our
sun. This is learned through the fact
that the planet has a family luminous
satellite which, though at about the dis
tance from Sirius which Neptune is from
the sun, 1t makes its revolution about the
primary in a little more than fifty years
less than one-third the period of Nep-
tune. The light emitted by Sirius is esti-
mated as at least forty times as great as
that of the sun.
Today we make our nearest approach 10
the sun, being three million miles closer
than We were last July. Shiyering Citi-
Zens may take comfort in the fact that
if their condition were reversed IL would
be very decidedly colder than ii now is
and we could get such satisfaction as we
might from the fact that the heat we
are missing now would be compensated
for in an extremely hot summer This state
of affairs actually prevails in the south
ern hemisphere. Ten thousand years
hence we will be having the extremes of
temperature in this hemisphere, but It
is now rather early to do much worrying
Jupiter and Saturn are in the daylit
sky, rising very shortly before the sun.
Venus can be seen and recognized as
morning star by early risers. Mars is in
Leo, rising shortly before 10 p. m It r1ay
be recognized as red star of superior
brightness somewhat south of the triangle
of stars forming the eastern part of Leo.
Mercury is not visible this month but
is moving at the rate of thirty-fve miles
a second to the point where we shall see
him next month.